[Ads-l] spooky claws

[Laurence Horn]

You mean you call them “‘scare' quotes”?  Or should that be ‘“scare” quotes’?

> On Oct 1, 2019, at 1:58 PM, Margaret Winters <mewinters at WAYNE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> Though we call them "scare" quotes...
> 
> ----------------------------
> MARGARET E WINTERS
> Former Provost
> Professor Emerita - French and Linguistics
> Wayne State University
> Detroit, MI  48202
> 
> mewinters at wayne.edu
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Sent: Monday, September 30, 2019 2:24 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: spooky claws
> 
>> On Sep 30, 2019, at 1:52 PM, Andy Bach <afbach at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>> 
>>> And if there is an existing term somewhere, tell me what it is,  (Then
>> switch to " spooky claws.")
>> 
>> Isn't "air quotes" the usual term?  Unless you mean that the face
>> scrunch/air quotes adds a level of disbelief that air quotes alone doesn't
>> carry.
> 
> I think the semantics are very different.  The spooky claws, where the fingers are wiggled back and forth, indicate “whoo-whoo” as in astral projection, Marianne Williamson, etc., not simple scare-quote-distancing the way air quotes do.
> 
> LH.
>> 
>> On Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 4:41 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Friday, MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace made political history by becoming the
>>> first former Republican White House staffer and current news host to
>>> scrunch up her face and wiggle her fingers at viewers while expressing
>>> skepticism about a conspiracy theory.
>>> 
>>> I asked my wife if some phrase existed for this familiar, two-handed wiggly
>>> gesture.  She immediately responded, "spooky claws."    I wondered aloud
>>> why I'd never met with that expression, and she clarified by saying she'd
>>> just made it up.
>>> 
>>> So if there's no recognized term, I urge everyone to adopt "making spooky
>>> claws."  ('Tis the season.)
>>> 
>>> And if there is an existing term somewhere, tell me what it is,  (Then
>>> switch to " spooky claws.")
>>> 
>>> JL
>>> 
>>> --
>>> "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
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> 
>> a
>> 
>> Andy Bach,
>> afbach at gmail.com
>> 608 658-1890 cell
>> 608 261-5738 wk
>> 
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