another meaning reversal

[Tom Zurinskas]

Tody the newscaster said of the approaching storm in the Caribbean "It could make a mess out of the disaster in the gulf" referring to the gulf oil leak.  Sounds like an upgrade.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+ 
see truespel.com phonetic spelling


 

> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Rick Barr <rickbarremail at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: another meaning reversal
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> A line in a movie reminded me of this discussion (i.e., of expressions like
> "could care less" and "so much of a peep"). Perhaps it was another example
> of a conscious meaning reversal, perhaps it was just a slip that made it
> past the director and the scriptwriters.
> 
> The actor who said it was Rob Schneider, and the movie was *Grown-Ups*(2010):
> "I don't even hardly know them."
> (The character is referring to his daughters.)
> 
> To my surprise, there are seven hits for that phrase in Google (unrelated to
> the movie).
> 
> -- Rick
> 
> 
> On Sat, May 22, 2010 at 11:20 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
> 
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject: Re: another meaning reversal
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 10:28 PM -0400 5/22/10, victor steinbok wrote:
> > >Yes, thanks! I noticed it, but as soon as I went to look for a
> > >standard example, I forgot to mention it.
> > >
> > >VS-)
> >
> > That could be relevant, but the first few pages of "so much of a
> > peep" have only one example of the kind below--the one Victor cites.
> > The others all involve negative polarity licensers (overt negation,
> > "without", "never", "if", "yet to", etc.). Volokh's is either a typo
> > or an outlier.
> >
> > LH
> >
> > >
> > >On Sat, May 22, 2010 at 9:04 PM, Gordon, Matthew J.
> > ><GordonMJ at missouri.edu> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> It might be important that in the example that Victor cited it's
> > >>"so much OF a peep" not "so much as a peep." Thus, it's
> > >>interpretable as "something that is very peep-like," in other words
> > >>it was only a peep and nothing louder.
> > >>
> > >> -Matt Gordon
> >
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

                                          
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The New Busy think 9 to 5 is a cute idea. Combine multiple calendars with Hotmail. 
http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?tile=multicalendar&ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_5
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