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#182673 - 02/16/09 04:33 PM The semantic shift
dalehileman Pooh-Bah Registered: 07/10/05 Posts: 1773 Loc: Apple Valley, CA, USA	http://www.freeratio.org/showthread.php?t=262434 _________________________ dalehileman
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#182685 - 02/17/09 12:13 PM Re: The semantic shift [Re: dalehileman]
AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel Registered: 03/15/00 Posts: 6511 Loc: lower upstate New York	Oh, those poor people...
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#182705 - 02/17/09 10:32 PM Re: The semantic shift [Re: AnnaStrophic]
Faldage Carpal Tunnel Registered: 12/01/00 Posts: 13667	I'm sorry that decimate doesn't mean 'kill one in ten' any more or that candidate doesn't mean 'someone dressed all in white' or miniature doesn't mean 'painted red', but, as the Red Queen said, "You've got to run as fast as you can to stay in one place."
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#182711 - 02/18/09 01:34 PM Re: The semantic shift [Re: Faldage]
dalehileman Pooh-Bah Registered: 07/10/05 Posts: 1773 Loc: Apple Valley, CA, USA	Originally Posted By: Faldage I'm sorry that decimate doesn't mean 'kill one in ten' any more By coincidence Fal that's also one of my pet peeves just as "venue" has come to mean any location, activity, or even causal factor. Thus where "decimated venue" might formerly have meant a reduction by ten percent in the number of jurisdictions where a trial could be held, it might now mean the slaughter in a Far-Eastern country of a wedding party by a stray Allied bomb ,,,,,,or that candidate doesn't mean 'someone dressed all in white' or miniature doesn't mean 'painted red', but, as the Red Queen said, "You've got to run as fast as you can to stay in one place." **Fal forgive an old fart on the threshold of senility of not Alzheimer's but you will have to explain the latter two perhaps using examples, though in my own defense when I relayed them to Laverne who is much smarter than I she didn't understand either _________________________ dalehileman
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#182712 - 02/18/09 02:12 PM Re: The semantic shift [Re: dalehileman]
tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Registered: 04/03/00 Posts: 10472 Loc: this too shall pass	pardon me for barging in, but I had to look this one up.. candidate ad. L. candidat-us adj., clothed in white, n. a candidate (because candidates for office wore a white toga), f. candidus white
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#182715 - 02/18/09 04:07 PM Re: The semantic shift [Re: tsuwm]
olly old hand Registered: 12/18/06 Posts: 933 Loc: Auckland, New Zealand	Candid is also verging on the semanticly shifting edge. Its meaning, from Open and Sincere, Informal & unposed (As in a candid photo) is turning into Candid as in Hidden Camera.
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#182716 - 02/18/09 05:53 PM Re: The semantic shift [Re: olly]
BranShea Carpal Tunnel Registered: 06/23/06 Posts: 5249 Loc: Netherlands, the Hague	Semanticly shifting edge sounds as dangerous as landslides and avalanches.
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#182733 - 02/19/09 05:10 PM Re: The semantic shift [Re: BranShea]
olly old hand Registered: 12/18/06 Posts: 933 Loc: Auckland, New Zealand	Originally Posted By: BranShea Semanticly shifting edge sounds as dangerous as landslides and avalanches. Yes, all it takes is one generation to nudge it over the precipice into oblivion. But then again, we will know the difference, wont we?
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#182740 - 02/19/09 06:45 PM Re: The semantic shift [Re: olly]
Faldage Carpal Tunnel Registered: 12/01/00 Posts: 13667	This sort of thing has been going on ever since we started talking. The language is not some fragile thing that will fall apart because of the slightest crack that appears in it. Language will do what it has to do to allow us to communicate. If one word becomes too ambiguous to do the job it was hired for some other word will come in and fill the job or we will make do with a team of words joining together in a phrase.
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#182748 - 02/19/09 09:20 PM Re: The semantic shift [Re: dalehileman]
Avyy newbie Registered: 02/15/09 Posts: 35	Originally Posted By: dalehileman http://www.freeratio.org/showthread.php?t=262434 Hi,I have been trying to read this post again, but now the site asks me to log in. Could you post the post here, so that it's easier to get the reference? Thanks.
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