"Acceptable" for a hazardous material

[Mark Mandel]

Meaning reversal? Surely no word here is *generally* reversing its meaning
here, even in the reporter's idiolect. It's more like losing count of your
negatives, as in "No one can fail to doubt his sincerity" (to mean "Everyone
believes he's sincere"). Maybe call it "parity confusion": "above" vs.
"below", and "unacceptably high" vs. "unacceptably low", and the "un-"
prefix of "unacceptable".

ISTM that
 - "unacceptably high" is fairly common
 - as is "(above/below) acceptable levels", and "unacceptable levels [were
found]",  which don't specify a direction but are usually used in a context
where more is worse
 - but "unacceptably low" is less common, and "acceptably low" even less so.

m a m

On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 4:43 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Another ex. of meaning reversal.
>
> JL
>
> On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 4:05 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      "Acceptable" for a hazardous material
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Heard on the car radio:  In an item on a steam pipe rupture in Boston
> > last night, the reporter said that levels of asbestos in the air were
> > below acceptable levels.  Presumably meaning they needed to be higher.
> >
> > I would require "below unacceptable levels."
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org