LINGUIST List 4.653

Wed 01 Sep 1993

Disc: Son of Fun

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Ron Smyth, Re: 4.648 Fun: inappropriate English
2. , Re: Just for Fun
3. Alex Monaghan, Re: 4.648 Fun: inappropriate English
4. , RE: 4.648 Fun: inappropriate English
5. Geoffrey Russom, Re: 4.648 Fun: inappropriate English
6. Julie Reyes, FUN.......while y'all are on the subject!

Message 1: Re: 4.648 Fun: inappropriate English

I was once confused about the crowded lineups in the Paris Metro and wondered
whether I was in the same line as the woman next to me. So I asked,
'Est-ce que je suis dans votre cul?' [cul = ass; queue = line]. And in
Granada in 1972 I was furious because a storekeeper insisted that she had
no avocados, then I found them on the way out. 'Usted me ha dicho que
no tenia avocados', I defiantly pronounced. 'No es un avogado, sen~or.
Es un aguacate'. (avocado/lawyer).
smythlake.scar.utoronto.ca

I, too, keep a file of contextually infelicitous usages. My two
favorites:

 --A couple of years ago, an angry crowd of midwestern workers gathered
to protest remarks made by the Japanese Prime Minister that disparaged
the educational standards of the American workforce. A news photograph
of the event showed one of the demonstrators holding up a sign reading:
"JAPAN SAYS YOUR STUPID!"

 --The Washington Post once printed an ad announcing the opening of yet
another pricey and pretentious "continental" restaurant. After describing
the restaurant's elegance, exclusiveness, and panoramic view of the
Virginia suburbs (it was one of those awful places on the top floor of
an office building), the ad summed it up as "A Coup de Grace."

 --Victor Golla

Message 3: Re: 4.648 Fun: inappropriate English

karen kay writes:

> I thought that bimbo was Italian for 'child'?

is this a case of "uptalk" (recent newspaper article starring mclemore)
in orthography? if so, is it common? i find it really bizarre to mark this
kind of thing with a question mark?
 alex?

Message 4: RE: 4.648 Fun: inappropriate English

OK, OK, so neither 'The Athlete's Foot' nor 'Bimbo' actually counts as an
example of what I intended. But I still think the former is pretty ridiculous,
given that most of that footwear is so bad for the feet... (The bookstore
called The Writer's Cramp is hardly in the same category, since I guess you
don't get writer's cramp from using the unhealthy products sold by the shop).
Thanks anyway for all the nice examples of atrocious English. The German
chewing-gum called 'Fuck' and the Japanese soft-drink called 'Sweat' remind me,
of course, of the French soft-drink called 'Pschitt' (the P is silent, as in
bathtub).

Greetings,
Paul Werth.

Message 5: Re: 4.648 Fun: inappropriate English

A rich vein of amusement can be found in English slogans affixed to
Japanese clothing products. Friends living there once sent us an
article marked "Poor boy look with rich".

 -- Rick Russom

I personally have gotten many a chuckle from the following Spanish
terms...
"esposa", in Spanish, means WIFE.............BUT..............
"esposas", in Spanish, means HANDCUFFS!
So I wonder how Alex Joseph of Big Water Utah, USA (a polygamist with
nine wives) would describe his marital situation in espanol?!?!?

do svidania.....
jules

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