More euphemisms: "pervasive language"

[Neal Whitman]

Although this phrase is new to me, I take it to be the same semantic narrowing of "language" to mean "offensive or obscene language" as you get in movies that are rated PG for "mild language":
http://literalminded.wordpress.com/2005/03/06/mild-language/

Neal

On Mar 16, 2012, at 5:59 PM, "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:      More euphemisms:  "pervasive language"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From the capsule attached to a review of the movie "21 Jump Street"
> by Wesley Morris in today's Boston Globe:
>
> Rated: R (crude and sexual content, pervasive language, drug
> material, teen drinking, and some violence)"
>
> About 1,520,000 Ghits, the first few asking (and alleging) what it
> means but many referring to other concepts.  And apparently standard
> -- part of the code?; other newspapers use the same phrase about the
> same movie (GNews).  The phrase seems to go back to about 1994 in
> this context (GNews), but is hard to trace for this sense in GBooks.
>
> So Morris did not mean "perverse".  Perhaps he meant "persuasive" --
> influencing someone into underage sex.  In a movie about the Catholic
> Church, "pervasive language" would be repeated exchanges of "Bless
> you, Father;" "Bless you, my son".
>
> I also wonder what is R about "drug material".  Surely more than just
> seeing it.
>
> Joel
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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