[Ads-l] WOTY candidate: unhoused

[Laurence Horn]

I would argue that at least the second example is a verbal participle, based on the verb “unhouse” ‘to be removed from one's house/housing’ rather than a negative adjective ‘not housed’, i.e. ‘homeless’. The former reading is parallel to “unhorsed” = ‘removed from one’s horse’.  (Compare "unwrapped” as the past tense or past participle of the verb “unwrap” vs. the adjective “not wrapped”.)  The first of Amy’s examples is ambiguous, but I think the more plausible reading is again the reversative or what is sometimes called the ablative verb, again I understand Rep. Bush to be talking about suffering eviction, i.e. a change of state, rather than simple homelessness, but it could be read the other way, especially if we didn’t have the latter example. 

LH

 


> On Sep 1, 2020, at 8:22 PM, Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM> wrote:
> 
> Probably recency illusion, but I've been noticing the use of "unhoused" instead of "homeless": I heard Cori Bush, the new Missouri representative use it in an interview:
> 
> " But, you know, I bring a different - you know, I bring something different, you know? And that is coming from the heart of the ground, out of the activist community, out of the Ferguson uprising, you know, being unhoused, being, you know, just a whole different - just a different outlook."
> 
> https://www.npr.org/2020/08/18/903616343/congressional-candidate-from-missouri-on-racial-justice-and-policing
> 
> And now I see it in an e-mail from ACLU:
> 
> "It was only because of a local moratorium that they were able to keep a roof above their heads. Since that expired, both they and her son could now be unhoused in a pandemic."
> 
> "Rent is Due Tomorrow," ACLU, 31 Aug 2020, e-mail.
> 
> Sorry if other folks have already commented on this.
> 
> ---Amy West
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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