avevale_intelligencer (
avevale_intelligencer) wrote2007-09-04 03:34 am
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Neologismster?
Isaac Asimov wrote a story entitled "Jokester," in which he postulated that every joke ever made had been implanted in our culture by alien scientists to test our reactions. The discovery of this fact in the story, naturally, heisenberged the experiment and all the jokes were removed, with the result that, as one character remarked, no-one on earth would ever laugh again. Unfortunately, with all respect to the Good Doctor, the premise is faulty, since a moment's thought will reveal that most if not all jokes arise from and depend on a thorough understanding of what it means to be human (though, given the upsurge in alleged "comedy" programmes such as The Office, he might have been on to something after all; we do seem to have lost the knack somehow).
The things that puzzle me, on the other hand, that might well have been implanted by someone or something, are the new words or usages that seem to pop out of nowhere. I've remarked before on the inexplicable use of "pants" as a pejorative adjective. And I remember well the Countess remarking on the first time she ever encountered the single word "Bless" used as an expression of affectionate and slightly condescending sympathy, and how scant days later I couldn't open a magazine or take part in a conversation without coming up against it. These neologisms do not seem to spring from any tribal argot, as "hip" (or "hep") and "square," say, sprang from the beatnik movement. They just appear, and seem to spread instantaneously by some kind of osmosis.
Are we the subject of some bizarre experiment by linguistically inclined beings from a higher dimension?
The things that puzzle me, on the other hand, that might well have been implanted by someone or something, are the new words or usages that seem to pop out of nowhere. I've remarked before on the inexplicable use of "pants" as a pejorative adjective. And I remember well the Countess remarking on the first time she ever encountered the single word "Bless" used as an expression of affectionate and slightly condescending sympathy, and how scant days later I couldn't open a magazine or take part in a conversation without coming up against it. These neologisms do not seem to spring from any tribal argot, as "hip" (or "hep") and "square," say, sprang from the beatnik movement. They just appear, and seem to spread instantaneously by some kind of osmosis.
Are we the subject of some bizarre experiment by linguistically inclined beings from a higher dimension?
no subject
Bless...that's a new one on me, though. It hasn't caught on out here and I wouldn't use the term to be condescending as it is. What would be an example?
no subject
Much in the same vein was the use of 'special' or 'spesh' a couple of decades ago, certain groups used it condescendingly about people they considered inferior ('special' as in "special needs", I suspect).
no subject
Special I have heard, though, and my understanding is that it does indeed stem from the term "special needs." My husband uses that one a lot when referring to his sister. O_o
Interesting now also comes to mind as a result, derived from the old curse that wishes "may he/she live in interesting times" to describe something traumatic or disagreeable.
no subject
no subject
I like Niven's puppeteer explanation of humour: it is the result of an interrupted defence mechanism. Most jokes set up an expectation of some form (not necessarily defensive, but often so as in Asimov's examples of jokes involving things which are technically 'bad') and then suddenly reverse or contradict the mood, thus triggering the laugh. This also ties in with Heinlein's explanation (in Stranger) that we laugh in order to defuse a bad situation ("If'n I don' laff, I sure am gonna cry!"). The big exception, as Asimov pointed out, is wordplay (puns, spoonerisms and the like) at which one normally groans rather than laughs.
no subject
The "me" tacked on the end is I think Northern in origin, and is similar to the practice in America of sticking it on to the beginning ("Me, I'm going home.") which has an interesting similarity to the Japanese "watashi wa" and the French "Moi, je rentre a la maison." I can see that being a logical way of adding emphasis to the subject of the sentence.
It's the ones for which, or for the sudden popularity of which, I can't see a logical explanation, that puzzle me: I know people have been saying "God bless him" or "bless her" or "bless their hearts" for ages, but where did this suddenly truncated "bless" come from?
no subject
no subject
It is, of course, apparently linked to the way in which bluetits across the country all learnt simultaneously how to peck open milk bottle tops.
no subject
It explains why f.e. great inventions or evolved animal/human behaviour appeared simultanously in a certain period. The blue-tits behaviour was one example of that.
If I can put it into simple words, he states that there are fields in and around morphic beings like there are f.e. radio waves in the air. Any other morphic being can "plug" into that field and therefore join the information found there. Like, picking up a signal...Thus, similar behaviour like using the same neologisms is spreading fast.
Oh, I think I'm making a mess out of his theory; better read for yourself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphic_field#Morphogenetic_field
Notice the different tests he did to prove his theory; I think you may have heard about a couple of them.