Has "congressman" ALWAYS meant "representative, not senator"?

Victor Steinbok aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM
Tue Nov 2 16:04:14 UTC 2010


One other note on Q-narrowing mentioned in VT column:

> Q-based narrowing can vary in strength. For example, few people will
> seriously claim that your thumb isn't a finger.

Interesting that you should mention that. I suspect you may have to
narrow this statement from "people" to "adults", as I just had a
conversation with my 6-year-old, with him insisting that he only has
three "fingers"--because a thumb and a pinky already have their own
names. Yet, in context, he had no trouble telling me "how many fingers"
I was holding up.

I also want to present a brief case for my "honorific" theory rather
than narrowing. My case will consist of one sentence: When was the last
time you've heard a reference to "Governor [Bill] Clinton"? There is no
narrowing here, as "governor" and "president" do not have an inclusive
relationship (unlike "Speaker" and "Representative" or "Congressman").

     VS-)

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