Small and Little

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

I assume Swedish has the same use of "the little/small people" that German does, where the term ("die kleinen Leute") means roughly "the little guy" (i.e., those who are not the big bosses, wealthy/influential tycoons, etc.).  If so, I'm sure we deal here merely with the BP board chairman translating a Swedish phrase literally into English without being aware that its nuance is different in English.
 
So his English is excellent but not perfect. And those of us who deal with foreign languages can empathize with that.
 
Gerald Cohen
 
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Original message from Bill Palmer, Thu 6/17/2010 7:09 AM:

These two words are nominal synonyms,  but definitely not 
interchangeable.

If the BP board chairman had referred to the *little people*, it would
have just been patronizing, but *small people* is not only that, but 
weird, too.  Surprisingly inartful word choice for a Swede, most of whom 
speak English more precisely than native speakers.

Bill Palmer

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