[Ads-l] "Looking to showcase women who do shit!"

[Baker, John]

So, bearing in mind Larry's merdologist literal interpretation, "she knows shit" has three possible interpretations, two positive and one negative:

She knows SHIT. [= she knows nothing]
She KNOWS shit. [=she knows stuff]
She KNOWS SHIT. [=she knows feces]

But the reverse has only negative interpretations:

She does not know SHIT.  [=she knows nothing]
She does not KNOW shit.  [=she does not know stuff]
She does not KNOW SHIT.  [=she does not know feces]

I'm not sure I'm doing justice to the merdologist emphases.


John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Laurence Horn
Sent: Sunday, February 14, 2016 7:20 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "Looking to showcase women who do shit!"

Actually, contra my previous message, in this context "know shit" can be positive too:  "She knows a lot of shit".  And maybe just de-stressing "shit" can accomplish this:

She knows SHIT.   [= 'she knows nothing', ignoring the literal interpretation on which she's a merdologist]
She KNOWS shit. [= 'she knows stuff']

LH


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