radio

[Joel S. Berson]

Sorry -- I missed the intervening messages.

Joel

At 2/6/2011 11:54 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>I wonder if the explanation isn't even simpler -- Victor's
>transcription  from the audio has an exclamation point.  Suppose
>instead a question mark.  Perhaps hard to differentiate the terminal
>inflection when the speaker is delivering an "angry tirade".
>
>Joel
>
>At 2/6/2011 10:04 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>At 3:02 AM -0500 2/6/11, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>>>
>>>Somewhat later--likely on a Hannity re-broadcast--two people were
>>>"debating" the relative merits of Islamic law. After one speaker
>>>suggested that his opponent was "angry", the other produced an angry
>>>tirade in response. "Don't you dare to diff... Don't you differentiate
>>>between anger and passion! I'm passionate about things that I am talking
>>>about!" Notwithstanding the tautology in the last sentence, the one
>>>before it contains an interesting use of "differentiate" that means
>>>exactly the opposite of what it normally means. [A considerable period
>>>of time passed since I heard the clip before
>>>I committed it to writing, so it may vary slightly in the false start
>>>and in the last bit, but the middle sentence is reported accurately.
>>>There was a false start and the last bit is substantially accurate, but
>>>I can't vouch for the exactness of those parts of the statement.]
>>At first blush, this is reminiscent of "arguing/quibbling over
>>semantics", where the meaning of semantics is something like 'stuff
>>that doesn't really affect the meaning'. But on closer examination I
>>think this is a one-off involving the frequent (and frequently
>>discussed) problem with losing track of one's negations, in this
>>leading to hyponegation rather than hypernegation.  The speaker
>>probably intended "Don't you (dare) not differentiate between anger
>>and passion".  Crucially, "differentiate" is a negative in the
>>relevant sense, which increases the processing difficulty.
>>
>>LH
>>
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>
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