blame

[Dan Goncharoff]

I think, therefore I ... what??

DanG

On 7/16/2010 1:12 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: blame (was: Prescriptivism and the cinema)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jesse informed me of this eccentricity many years ago.  The movement was
> called "e-prime" (for "English Prime," of course).  The name is chosen
> to suggest that the perpetrator knows math as well as English.
>
> AFAIK, no one has successfully achieved the e-prime state in extended
> utterance. But it remains a manic ideal for some.  God knows why.
>
> Am too lazy to Google, but I bet there's lots to see.
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 11:49 AM, Charles C Doyle<cdoyle at uga.edu>  wrote:
>
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Charles C Doyle<cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: blame (was: Prescriptivism and the cinema)
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Regarding the way prescriptions and proscriptions "contaminate" seemingly
>> related usages (and if I've mentioned this before, I apologize):
>>
>> We all know that good writers supposedly shun copulas (or passive
>> constructions), preferring the vigorous, virile active voice. Well, my son
>> in high school had an English teacher who banned ALL uses of the verb "be,"
>> including its use as an auxillary. "I am writing a message" would have to
>> become "I write a message"--not quite English!
>>
>> --Charlie
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
>> Laurence Horn [laurence.horn at YALE.EDU]
>> Sent: Friday, July 16, 2010 10:02 AM
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> At 4:22 PM -0700 7/15/10, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>>
>>> ...
>>> now, the big fuss among peevers is over the two argument structures:
>>>
>>> (a) blame SOURCE (for CONSEQUENCE)  (blame Kim (for the disaster))
>>> (b) blame CONSEQUENCE on SOURCE  (blame the disaster on Kim)
>>>
>>> the peevers' claim (since the mid-19th century=20
>>> or so) is that only (a) is acceptable and that=20
>>> (b) is simply wrong wrong wrong: you can't blame=20
>>> *something*, they say, majestically (you can put=20
>>> the blame on Mame, you can blame Mame for it,=20
>>> but you can't blame it on Mame).  but (b) has=20
>>> been used by polished, good writers for a very=20
>>> long time, and continues in such use today=20
>>> (alongside (a); the two variants have different=20
>>> virtues).  some handbooks still deprecate it,=20
>>> and some mark it as colloquial, but these=20
>>> attitudes bordered on the loony a hundred years=20
>>> ago, and there's no rational defense for them=20
>>> now.  (of course, if you choose not to use the=20
>>> (b) structure and opt for (a) instead, that's=20
>>> your business.)
>>>
>>> now observe that even the loonies have "blame"=20
>>> as a verb (in structure (a)), and that's been=20
>>> around, undisturbed, since early middle english.
>>>
>>> you can see why i'd be interested in seeing a=20
>>> textbook that actually says that "blame" cannot=20
>>> be used as a verb, period, which entails that=20
>>> (a) is as unacceptable as (b) is sometimes=20
>>> thought to be.
>>>
>>> in terms that i have sometimes used, this would=20
>>> be a case where the claimed unacceptability of=20
>>> (b) *contaminates* the innocent (a).
>>>
>>>
>> If so, the situation would be similar to what=20
>> MWDEU sees as having happened with "infer" in=20
>> what it refers to as the "More 1533" sense:=20
>> "infer" meaning 'imply' or 'lead someone to=20
>> conclude' with an non-human subject (where, of=20
>> course, no confusion is possible, since only=20
>> humans--or maybe other higher mammals--can draw=20
>> inferences).  This sense is widely attested since=20
>> Sir Thomas More used it in 1533 (5 years after he=20
>> introduced the universally approved "More 1528"=20
>> sense of "infer" with the meaning 'conclude,=20
>> deduce'.  This usage, as shown both by MWDEU and=20
>> the OED ("infer" sense 4: 'To lead to (something)=20
>> as a conclusion; to involve as a consequence; to=20
>> imply. Said of a fact or statement; sometimes, of=20
>> the person who makes the statement') has a=20
>> lineage that includes Shakespeare, Milton,=20
>> Jonathan Edwards, James Boswell, Jane Austen,=20
>> Thomas Hardy, Joshua Whatmough ("the levels of=20
>> restricted syntactic relationships infer an=20
>> individual complication of language") and William=20
>> =46aulkner ("to be a literary man infers a certain=20
>> amount of--well, even formal education"), but it=20
>> has become the target of prescriptivists since=20
>> the early 20th c., probably because of guilt by=20
>> association with the use of "infer" *with a human=20
>> subject* to mean 'imply', where confusion can=20
>> indeed occur.  This latter is what MWDEU dubs=20
>> "Terry 1896", for its first attested written=20
>> example in a letter from actress Ellen Terry: "I=20
>> should think you DID miss my letters. I know it!=20
>> but=8Ayou missed them in another way than you=20
>> infer, you little minx!"  The OED adds the more=20
>> recent cite "I can't stand fellers who infer=20
>> things about good clean-living Australian=20
>> sheilahs".  If MWDEU is right, and their argument=20
>> does seem plausible, the Terry 1896 use of=20
>> "infer" (=3D 'imply', with a human subject) has=20
>> come to "contaminate" the More 1533 use (=3D=20
>> 'imply, lead to a conclusion', with a non-human=20
>> subject).
>>
>> LH
>>
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>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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