More euphemisms: "pervasive language"

[Laurence Horn]

On Mar 17, 2012, at 3:20 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> "TV-14" seems to mean "Possibly to your taste if you've just turned 14.
> Much older than that and you're likely to be bored and irritated."
> 
> JL

Well, if you read the "-" as 'less than', it makes a lot of sense.

Speaking of negatives, for those of you with an interest in them (especially in groups), you find the Language Log posting at http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3839 interesting, or at least not not interesting.

LH
> 
> On Sat, Mar 17, 2012 at 3:10 PM, Larry Sheldon <LarrySheldon at cox.net> wrote:
> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Larry Sheldon <LarrySheldon at COX.NET>
>> Organization: Maybe tomorrow
>> Subject:      Re: More euphemisms: "pervasive language"
>> 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> On 3/17/2012 12:38 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>> 
>>> I wonder whether one of the spurs to this narrowed usage might be the
>>> frequent use of the big label L for "language" on television shows
>>> and broadcast movies (not only at the start but when they come back
>>> from commercial interruptions) as one of the options along with
>>> S(ex), N(udity), D(rug use), V(iolence), and whatever else I'm
>>> forgetting.
>> 
>> That is the decode I have been looking for!  I've not seen it before.
>> 
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> 
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