[Ads-l] shocked = 'pleasantly surprised'

Sat Jun 18 23:03:12 UTC 2016

Meaning what?

JL

On Sat, Jun 18, 2016 at 5:52 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
> Didn't this ship sail a while ago?
>
> DanG
> PortSide NewYork
> www.portsidenewyork.org
> On Jun 18, 2016 4:41 PM, "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Ah, but your adduced exx. suggest that you recognize subliminally that
>> this usage is a little weird, especially in this instance.
>>
>> Possibly you'll be more impressed when I say that "positive _shock_"
>> is now everywhere in the media.
>>
>> JL
>>
>> On Sat, Jun 18, 2016 at 4:20 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>> wrote:
>> >> On Jun 18, 2016, at 3:27 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> A lady in a commercial has just had her DNA tested so as to discover
>> >> her true essence.
>> >>
>> >> "The most shocking result was I'm 26% Native American!"
>> >>
>> >> Time was that would have been an obviously racist remark.
>> >>
>> >> JL
>> >
>> > Couldn't "shocked" here just be 'very surprised', without affective
>> content as to pleasantly or not, with the affect coming from the context?
>> I could imagine, for example, Mets' fans in 1969, or U.S. hockey fans in
>> 1980, describing themselves as being shocked, as well as delighted, at the
>> unexpected (or shocking) results.
>> >
>> > Here are a few Google hits (found by googling "I'm shocked that we won")
>> that sound natural enough to me:
>> >
>> > ====================
>> > Esquire's editor in chief, David Granger, said: "I thought we had a
>> chance to win one [publishing award, in 2004], but I'm shocked that we won
>> four."
>> >
>> > "Findlay's a great team," Burnham said, "I'm shocked that we won as
>> easily as we won, but I'm proud of the way our girls played."
>> > [coach of girls' high school volleyball team]
>> >
>> > “I'm shocked that we won, considering all of the amazing films on the
>> roster this year.” said Cordero.
>> > [film-maker whose "Inside a Change" won Best Picture at 2009 HBO Latino
>> Film Festival]
>> >
>> > "I'm shocked that we won. Happy, of course, but shocked. The narrative
>> will be how the Bengals played down to the level of their competition...but
>> credit the defense for playing the way we thought they were capable of and
>> essentially shutting down one of the best offenses in the NFL."
>> > [Texans fan commenting on blog post after Texans' upset win against the
>> Bengals, Nov. 2015]
>> > =====================
>> >
>> > On the assumption (supported by the OED) that originally "shocked"
>> always meant 'horrified, upset, scandalized', maybe this is a kind of
>> intensifier bleaching, not uncommon (cf. "terrific") although not
>> inevitable (cf. "horrific").
>> >
>> > LH
>> >
>> >
>> >>
>> >> On Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 7:22 AM, Jonathan Lighter
>> >> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> >>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> >>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> >>> Subject:      Re: shocked = 'pleasantly surprised'
>> >>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >>>
>> >>>> Although youneverknow.
>> >>>
>> >>> In this case I do know. Intonation - affect - and three of four
>> co-yakkers
>> >>> agreed that Seth sounded great.
>> >>>
>> >>> JL
>> >>>
>> >>> On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 8:29 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu
>> >wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> >>>> -----------------------
>> >>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> >>>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> >>>> Subject:      Re: shocked = 'pleasantly surprised'
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >>>>
>> >>>> On Feb 25, 2013, at 7:15 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>> >>>>
>> >>>>> At 2/25/2013 04:43 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> >>>>>> We've mentioned this before, but here's another good one. A yakking
>> >>>> head on
>> >>>>>> CNN says he was "shocked" to hear Seth McFarlane's singing voice at
>> the
>> >>>>>> Acade--- I mean at the Oscars.
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> So was Claude Rains.  Pleasantly surprised, surprised, I mean.  He
>> >>>>> was expecting his winnings shortly.
>> >>>>>
>> >>>>> Joel
>> >>>>>
>> >>>> Ah, but the good Captain Louie was *pretending* to be unpleasantly
>> >>>> surprised, surprised, or even scandalized, scandalized at the
>> evidence of
>> >>>> gambling.  The CNN guy presumably was not being ironic at the
>> evidence of
>> >>>> holding a tune.  Although youneverknow.
>> >>>>
>> >>>> LH
>> >>>>
>> >>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> >>>> The American Dialect Society -
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=CwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=yh6LNTvTp_iHRPoH7B-QdRJ-33hJ04kxg-XjEDEzyOk&s=-VjEdVRUL1Sey0vXZghkLI-1jjwdWbx3D1OGWqLu62c&e=
>> >>>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> --
>> >>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>> >>>
>> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> >>> The American Dialect Society -
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=CwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=yh6LNTvTp_iHRPoH7B-QdRJ-33hJ04kxg-XjEDEzyOk&s=-VjEdVRUL1Sey0vXZghkLI-1jjwdWbx3D1OGWqLu62c&e=
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>> >>
>> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> >> The American Dialect Society -
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=CwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=yh6LNTvTp_iHRPoH7B-QdRJ-33hJ04kxg-XjEDEzyOk&s=-VjEdVRUL1Sey0vXZghkLI-1jjwdWbx3D1OGWqLu62c&e=
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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