Fabric Words used metaphorically

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#203351 - 11/19/11 09:43 AM Re: the ungrammatical walk at nigh [Re: bexter]
goofy member Registered: 01/06/08 Posts: 132	Orwell was a great writer, but he didn't know much about language. Which wasn't really his fault, the field of linguistics was not very well known in the 40s. For instance Quote: But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on indefinitely. A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. To me this looks like linguistic determinism. There just isn't evidence that language shapes thought to such an extreme extent. Quote: Another example is the hammer and the anvil, now always used with the implication that the anvil gets the worst of it. In real life it is always the anvil that breaks the hammer, never the other way about: a writer who stopped to think what he was saying would avoid perverting the original phrase. This is the etymological fallacy. The origin of a word or phrase is irrelevant to how it is currently used. Quote: But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation even among people who should and do know better. All language is spread by tradition and imitation. This is how language works. If it was possible that normal language use led to corruption, then why wasn't language corrupted hundreds or thousands of years ago? Quote: In addition, the passive voice is wherever possible used in preference to the active I assume this is a joke: using the passive in the very sentence where he's talking about how the passive is overused. But Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage notes Quote: Bryant 1962 reports three statistical studies of passive versus active sentences in various periodicals; the highest incidence of passive constructions was 13 percent. Orwell runs to a little over 20 percent in "Politics and the English Language." Orwell's essay, where he warns us not to use the passive voice, has more passive clauses than any periodical. What that intentional? Edited by goofy (11/19/11 11:35 AM)
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#203370 - 11/20/11 03:57 AM Re: the ungrammatical walk at nigh [Re: Umber]
Rhubarb Commando old hand Registered: 11/13/11 Posts: 1031 Loc: Lancaster, UK	I'm really going to have to read up on Orwell's essays - up to now I've only read his books. The discussion, above, has inspired me! But back to the fabric topic; how about "Cotton on," meaning to understand - probably belatedly - what someone else is talking about, or doing. E.g., "It took me a while to cotton on to the fact that you were drowning, not waving." _________________________ I'm immortal until proven otherwise
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#203373 - 11/20/11 07:27 AM Re: the ungrammatical walk at nigh [Re: Umber]
Faldage Carpal Tunnel Registered: 12/01/00 Posts: 13655	Ooh. I like that one. The OED has some verb senses for cotton that look like they might have shifted to the modern sense and it does come from the same root as the fabric or plant from which the fabric is derived. AHD4 is a little more helpful in the etymology. We have but have not yet dewrapped the AHD5.
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#203380 - 11/20/11 03:32 PM Re: the ungrammatical walk at nigh [Re: Faldage]
Rhubarb Commando old hand Registered: 11/13/11 Posts: 1031 Loc: Lancaster, UK	I have just seen in the dictionary, Cotton up to, meaning "to make friendly advances toward." This is a completely unknown usage so far as I am concerned. Is anyone here familiar with it? _________________________ I'm immortal until proven otherwise
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#203381 - 11/20/11 03:42 PM Re: the ungrammatical walk at nigh [Re: Faldage]
tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Registered: 04/03/00 Posts: 10464 Loc: this too shall pass	then there is the form "cotton to", meaning (idiomatically) to like; approve of, accept, or tolerate.
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#203384 - 11/20/11 04:02 PM Re: the ungrammatical walk at nigh [Re: Rhubarb Commando]
LukeJavan8 Carpal Tunnel Registered: 06/23/08 Posts: 5289 Loc: Land of the Flat Water	Originally Posted By: Rhubarb Commando I have just seen in the dictionary, Cotton up to, meaning "to make friendly advances toward." This is a completely unknown usage so far as I am concerned. Is anyone here familiar with it? I had an uncle who frequently used it. _________________________ ----please, draw me a sheep----
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#203393 - 11/21/11 08:31 AM Re: the ungrammatical walk at nigh [Re: Rhubarb Commando]
zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel Registered: 08/13/05 Posts: 3269 Loc: R'lyeh	Is anyone here familiar with [cotton up to]? I've heard it from speakers of American English. _________________________ Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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