"send the wrong message"

[Jonathan Lighter]

He may have sent the wrong signal. Or did he send the right one
unintentionally? Of course, from his viewpoint in that case, it would
have been the wrong one.

Signals are even trickier than messages.

JL



On Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 11:21 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> 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 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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