False facts on Visual Thesaurus

[Baker, John]

Note that there is a special legal usage of "fact" which is evidenced in the 1688 attestation.  Cases are decided based on the combination of the applicable law and the facts of the particular case.  These are treated differently:  Facts are found by a jury, or by a sitting judge in the absence of a jury, and there is only limited opportunity to appeal findings of fact.  In contrast, rulings of law are always made by a judge and can be appealed to the court of last appeal.

Of course, finders of fact are only human, and they can be wrong (or, as in the 1688 use, corrupt).  Findings of facts may be set aside if clearly erroneous.  In such a case, I suppose they were only findings of "facts."  Similarly, in the 1688 attestation the hypothetical judges are directing the jury to find certain facts, although the judges are aware that those findings are in actuality false.

I'm not a subscriber to Visual Thesaurus, and perhaps my point is already addressed there.  In any case, it seems to me that the legal usage is a specialized sense that does not tell us too much about the phrase "false facts" in non-legal contexts.


John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Neal Whitman
Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2013 6:08 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: False facts on Visual Thesaurus

By subscription, my column at Visual Thesaurus on "false facts" (and true ones, too):
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/true-facts-and-false-facts/

>From the column, a 1688 attestation of "false fact":

Or, suppose the Judges were corrupt; and directed false Law, or false Fact, or overawed the Jury; or admitted a Party to be a Witness, or Juror (as in Effect it was); That was enough to render the Verdict corrupt....

Also a discussion of an entry in the alt.usage.english FAQ, which argues that "false fact" is no more contradictory than "false teeth". My rebuttal: unlike "fake", "false" has a different meaning when applied to nouns denoting a proposition. E.g. a false claim is not something that appears to be a claim but is really a question or command; it's a claim denoting a proposition that is false.

Neal

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com>
> Date: July 30, 2013 12:20:05 AM EDT
> To: Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net>
> Subject: Re: False facts followup
>
> And here it is...
>
> http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/true-facts-and-false-facts/
>
> Thanks,
> Ben
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 11:39 AM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net> wrote:
> OK, thanks for the update.
>
> Neal
>
> On 7/25/2013 12:28 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>> We'll run it next week -- most likely Tuesday.
>>
>> Best,
>> Ben
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 12:21 AM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net> wrote:
>> Hi Ben,
>>
>> Any verdict on the false facts column?
>>
>> Neal
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Ben Zimmer
>> http://benzimmer.com/
>
>
>
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/

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