"send the wrong message"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 10/15/2011 11:02 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Yes, and "covert" might be added as well. Cf. recent "dog whistle."
>Was somebody "sending a message" intended covertly for only a few?
>
>JL

Or Cary Grant in "Bringing Up Baby".  :-)

Joel



>On Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 10:14 AM, 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:      Re: "send the wrong message"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 10/15/2011 09:40 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >>Note especially that the "signal" or "message" in recent use is often
> >>merely a byproduct. Often it involves an unintended, even subliminal,
> >>quasi-Pavlovian interpretation:
> >>
> >>"Too many of today's films send a message to kids that
> ultraviolence is fun."
> >>
> >>Of course, an earlier generation would simply have used "tell." But
> >>given the choice (which seems barely to have existed forty-odd years
> >>ago), "tell" seems to me to imply something more apparent to any
> >>ordinary observer, whereas "send a message" implies something more
> >>oblique and perhaps less conscious.
> >>
> >>Or is it a distinction with no more than a stylistic difference?
> >
> > There is a distinction to me.  "Tell" suggests something overt,
> > deliberate, while "send a message" (in these kinds of contexts)
> > suggests the possibility that the received meaning was not
> > consciously intended.
> >
> > Joel

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