Cliches

[Kephart, Ronald]

All,

Apparently, after 17+ years at this place, somebody in "media relations"
realized there's a linguist on campus and that I am it. So, when a columnist
for the local paper called for an interview on cliches, I was drafted. I did
the phone interview and the resulting article made me appear to be among the
crypto-fascist language police. It probably didn¹t help that I suggested
that expressions such as ³at the end of the day² may spread ³like a virus²
thru a population- viruses are bad, so cliches are bad. Plus, there was no
mention of my mention of Dawkins and memes. Aaargh!
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/012707/bum_7597467.shtml

The "cliches" they were interested in, by the way ( a cliché I guess), are
things like "at the end of the day," "in the red/black," "level playing
field," "level of support," etc.

Anyways... now they want me to do a tv spot on this in a series called "Ask
the UNF Expert," which will air on Feb 12. Suddenly, I'm an expert on
cliches? Frankly, I find the whole thing kind of boring (a cliché, perhaps?)
and I'd really like to rent a chimpanzee suit to wear to this thing, but
I've already promised to behave. I do plan to go in with an agenda that
might include calling attention to: (1) the difference between language
prescription and description; (2) the metaphorical nature of many (most?)
cliches; (3) the interactive functions of cliches as transitions and so on;
(4) the fact that cliché itself is a French word being used to negatively
characterize a part of English discourse (shades of 1066); (5) The
possibility that they¹re misusing the word cliché; (6) ?

So, at the end of the day, and having said that, if anyone has suggestions
or comments on something I¹m missing here, I¹ll greatly appreciate any level
of support.

Ron

-- 
Ronald Kephart
Associate Professor of Anthropology
University of North Florida
(904) 620-1659

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