fun with phrases

[Dan Goncharoff]

What about the popularity of 'self-instructors" in the 19th century?
Both the Horatio Alger stories and the overall immigrant experience
are about the idea of self-reinvention, even if the phrase is not
used. Instead, people were said to be "self-made".

DanG



On Sun, Sep 18, 2011 at 1:17 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: fun with phrases
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The concepts are similar, but "recreating yourself" in 1912 was not an idea
> commonly mentioned in print as "redefining" and "reinventing" yourself
> became many decades later - to the point, in fact, of becoming cliche's.
>
> Here's another:
>
> 1st CNN anchor: How are you doin' today?
> 2nd CNN anchor [humorously]: Just livin' the dream here in Atlanta, Georgia.
>
> To "live the dream": to be ecstatically happy with one's social, financial
> or professional success or general existence.
>
> This is pretty new too, but well known. The defining characteristic is the
> lack of previous specification of what the "dream" might be. In the cliche',
> everybody knows it's very broad indeed and closely connected with social and
> financial contentment.
>
> Searches are difficult, but it looks like the free-floating,
> non-contextually specified phrase doesn't turn up till the late '60s and
> doesn't become common for five or ten more years. (There is at least one
> '50s ex., but the nature of the "dream" - a missionary's - was first
> specified.)
>
> What's it prove? Don't know. Who cares? Don't know that either. Does it
> "provide a linguistic index to American culture," as popular books on
> language used to say?  What's *that* mean?
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 8:39 PM, Garson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: fun with phrases
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Here is some "psychobabble" in 1912 that includes the phrase "create
>> yourself anew", and discusses the theme of remaking yourself
>> psychologically in a chapter called "The Subconscious".
>>
>> Cite: 1912, Human Efficiency: A Psychological Study of Modern Problems
>> by Horatio W. Dresser, Chapter 5: The Subconscious, Page 123, G. P.
>> Putnam's Sons, New York. (Google Books full view)
>>
>> <Begin short exert>
>> You wish to create yourself anew in wiser fashion so that the ideals
>> of to-day shall constitute the habitual self of to-morrow. Thus you
>> endeavour to outwit your own consciousness by giving your activity
>> more resolutely to the ideal, refusing to own these miserable moods
>> and emotions through which you betray fear, anger, jealousy,
>> resentment, and the like.
>> <End excerpt>
>>
>> More can be read by following this link:
>>
>> http://books.google.com/books?id=DLUZAAAAMAAJ&q=%22create+yourself%22#v=snippet&
>>
>>  Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> > Subject:      Re: fun with phrases
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> >> Or are you suggesting that the application to "self" is
>> > something that's never been used before?
>> >
>> > My tentative answer is yes. The essential attitudes behind these phrases
>> may
>> > be ancient, even as applied to people (though I'm not sure of that), but
>> if
>> > so their reduction to simple, easily recalled, and frequently uttered
>> > cliche's really does seem new.
>> >
>> > Think about it: "redefine yourself" - what exactly does that mean?
>> Overhaul
>> > much of your personality for some psychological or social benefit? That
>> > seems like a late 20th C. idea to me. Did pre-Freudian generations even
>> > consider that one could do that, even if one wanted to? And why would you
>> > want to? If you simply switched jobs, for ex., you were still defined as
>> > you. Nowadays, maybe not.  "Redefine" also seems to suggest the effective
>> > power of pure image-making - surely a (?mid-)20th C. notion.
>> >
>> > "Reinvent" is similar but suggests getting completely outside yourself to
>> do
>> > it. The word once had somewhat negative associations, since people were
>> > sometimes warned "You don't need to reinvent the wheel."
>> >
>> > "Don't let the past determine your future": less radical, but again
>> reduced
>> > by centuries of philosophical and psychological thought into handy,
>> > apothegmatic form. It also suggests the possibility - in fact the
>> likelihood
>> > - that one can make a huge change in one's life despite past influences.
>>  It
>> > seems to presuppose, however, that one is at the mercy of the past right
>> up
>> > until one chooses to fight back.   I believe the accepted pre-Freudian
>> idea
>> > was that free will and will power made nonsense of any personal
>> historical
>> > determinism.
>> >
>> > (Personal biological determinism, however, - like being born into "bad
>> > family" - was believed to be a very real force that might be conquered,
>> only
>> > rarely, through extraordinary will power. Lincoln was derided as a
>> "gorilla"
>> > because he came from the far frontier, looked strange, and had a socially
>> > disapproved accent - which, to the elite, implied stupidity: his rise
>> "from
>> > log cabin to White House" seemed astonishing. Something similar had been
>> > true of Robert Burns, from rural Scotland.)
>> >
>> > Anyway, it's the conciseness and clarity of the recent phrases, and the
>> now
>> > blandly familiar assumptions that allow their everyday expression, that I
>> > find striking. Maybe I should join another list.
>> >
>> > JL
>> >
>> > On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 1:49 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com
>> >wrote:
>> >
>> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> >> -----------------------
>> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> >> Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>> >> Subject:      Re: fun with phrases
>> >>
>> >>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >>
>> >> Not to mention the fact the the slogan of the 2008 presidential campaign
>> >> was
>> >> "Change", which is, in part, the same metaphor.
>> >>
>> >> Of course, there were a few similar ones along the way:
>> >>
>> >> "This is not your [grand]father's Oldsmobile"
>> >>
>> >> Still, I am compelled to ask: Is it really new or just a
>> transmogrification
>> >> of some other cliche from 1932? (or even 1832?)
>> >>
>> >> There have always been two opposite direction for any "progress"--expand
>> on
>> >> your predecessor vs. start anew. This is just conservatism vs. the
>> >> revolutionary. Or are you suggesting that the application to "self" is
>> >> something that's never been used before?
>> >>
>> >> VS-)
>> >>
>> >> On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 12:12 PM, Jonathan Lighter
>> >> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>> >>
>> >> >
>> >> > Within minutes of each other I've encountered three fairly "recent"
>> >> cliches
>> >> > that got me to wondering.  All three are now frequently heard (at
>> least
>> >> in
>> >> > my world), but there was a time - in my own lifetime - when they never
>> >> > were.
>> >> > In theory, anybody since the rollout of EModE around 1600 could have
>> >> > uttered
>> >> > these words spontaneously, but if they did no one was paying much
>> >> > attention.
>> >> >
>> >> > So I did a quick GB search.
>> >> >
>> >> > FWIW:
>> >> >
>> >> > "redefine yourself": 1966, but not common for a decade.
>> >> >
>> >> > "reinvent yourself": 1969, but ditto.
>> >> >
>> >> > "Don't let the past determine your future" : 2000.
>> >> >
>> >> > "So what?" you say. "These things merely reflect the self-help crazes
>> of
>> >> > the
>> >> > age."
>> >> >
>> >> > Precisely. Nobody was thinking these things in 1932 and now a hundred
>> >> > million people are. That suggests a significant cultural change
>> >> > encapsulated
>> >> > in just a handful of words.
>> >> >
>> >> > Stay tuned.
>> >> >
>> >> > JL
>> >>
>> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> >
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org