[Ads-l] Phrase: [Word] is doing a lot of work

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Thanks. Excellent citation, Stephen. The meaning of the locution is
still somewhat opaque to me, but now we know that critics have been
using it for a few decades.

I agree with LH that the insight of Geoff Nunberg would have been most
welcome on this topic.
Garson

On Thu, Apr 29, 2021 at 10:42 AM Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
>
> The word ' snigger ' does a lot of work here , for it is not the echoes which ' snigger but the speaker's attitude which is sniggering . Like a nervous schoolboy, his attitude is actually one of uneasy scepticism and cultivated disdain: he pretends ...
>
> The less deceived and the Whitsun weddings by Philip Larkin / page 30
> Andrew Swarbrick
> 1986 1st ed.
> English  Book ix, 86 pages ; 22 cm.
> Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire : Macmillan
>
> Also with phrases:
>
>  <https://books.google.com/books?id=iwYaAQAAIAAJ&q=%22does+a+lot+of+work+here%22&dq=%22does+a+lot+of+work+here%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=1&printsec=frontcover&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj92ana1qPwAhWNQs0KHcj1CU4Q6AEwA3oECAAQAg>
> Outside the Book: Contemporary Essays on Literary Periodicals <https://books.google.com/books?id=iwYaAQAAIAAJ&q=%22does+a+lot+of+work+here%22&dq=%22does+a+lot+of+work+here%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=1&printsec=frontcover&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj92ana1qPwAhWNQs0KHcj1CU4Q6AEwA3oECAAQAg>
> books.google.com › books <https://books.google.com/books?id=iwYaAQAAIAAJ&q=%22does+a+lot+of+work+here%22&dq=%22does+a+lot+of+work+here%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=1&printsec=frontcover&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj92ana1qPwAhWNQs0KHcj1CU4Q6AEwA3oECAAQAg>
>
> David Carter · 1991 · ‎Snippet view
> Found inside – Page 17
> They have bought the pernicious ideology which " believes as a dogma that the highest cultural goods are or should be available to every citizen . " The nice equivocation of " are or should be " does a lot of work here . Of course highly formal .
>
> SG
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2021 10:33 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Phrase: [Word] is doing a lot of work
>
> Geoff Nunberg, thou shouldest be living at this hour!
>
> > On Apr 28, 2021, at 9:13 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> > Science historian James Gleick asked an interesting question on
> > twitter a few hours ago that may be pertinent to this mailing list.
> >
> > https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://twitter.com/JamesGleick/status/1387525011922198529__;!!OToaGQ!42tmozDvCHoIW6DIJliByfl_wKAkaLmaZrmBvV4pOpf8DiP93n9YiQuKhDhXm5G4$
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > I would like a lexicographer to tell me about the phrase “is doing a
> > lot of work there,” as applied to a word.
> >
> > “The word ‘merely’ is doing a lot of work there.”
> >
> > When did that start?
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > A scientist saw Gleick's inquiry and signaled me. Now I am relaying
> > this question to this mailing list.
> >
> > In order to be helpful, I quickly interrogated JSTOR and found the two
> > matches below which I tweeted. I did not attempt to interpret this
> > construct, and would welcome your analysis.
> >
> > Date: Winter 1999
> > Journal: The Threepenny Review
> > Article: The Triple Thinker
> > Author: P. N. Furbank
> >
> > https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://jstor.org/stable/4384777__;!!OToaGQ!42tmozDvCHoIW6DIJliByfl_wKAkaLmaZrmBvV4pOpf8DiP93n9YiQuKhKwvvTo8$
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > "Travail" is doing a lot of work here; it is the mot juste, but a word
> > that Newman or Coleridge could perfectly well have used.
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> >
> > Journal: Ethical Theory and Moral Practice
> > Date: Dec. 2000
> > Article: New Directions in Ethics: Naturalisms, Reasons and Virtue
> > Author: Soran Reader
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > But 'education' here is doing a lot of work: it is richly understood,
> > as no less than the creating and shaping of the virtuous person in
> > childhood.
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> > Garson
> >
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