[Ads-l] Sleaze Letigimized - Euphemism Rampage

[Neal Whitman]

Somewhere there's something interesting to say about semantics or 
pragmatics and scalpers who stand outside a venue with signs saying, "I 
need tickets." They don't need them; they're selling them, but they're 
not allowed to say that. At least, that's how it is here in central 
Ohio. Does this happen elsewhere?

Neal

On 1/20/2015 11:20 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Sleaze Letigimized - Euphemism Rampage
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Tue, Jan 20, 2015 at 3:35 AM, David Daniel wrote:
>>  From CNN Money: Re Super Bowl tickets, thousands of which are given to "...
>> the teams, which end up using brokers to sell them on the secondary market."
>> So now scalpers (touts - UK) are "brokers" and ply their trade proudly,
>> making money for the teams in the "secondary market"? Back at World Cup
>> time, a bunch of people went to jail here in Rio for scalping. They just
>> picked the wrong country I guess.
> The "secondary market" for reselling tickets has been legitimized by
> the U.S. professional sports industry, allowing people to resell
> tickets via StubHub and similar services. (Presumably the
> leagues/teams get a cut of the profits.) So your one-time "scalpers"
> are now legitimate "brokers." Cf. "budtender," replacing "pot dealer"
> in states that have legalized the sale of marijuana.
>
> --bgz
>

-- 
Dr. Neal Whitman
Lecturer, ESL Composition
School of Teaching and Learning
College of Education and Human Ecology
Arps Hall
1945 North High Street
whitman.11 at osu.edu
(614) 260-1622


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