LINGUIST List 13.267

Thu Jan 31 2002

Qs: Contrastive Corpus, New Uses of 'Gay'

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  • Agn�s leroux, contrastive corpus
  • Dorine S. Houston, Query: New used of 'Gay'

    Message 1: contrastive corpus

     Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002 12:12:37 -0800
    From: Agn�s leroux <agnes.lerouxfree.fr>
    Subject: contrastive corpus


    I am a french linguist and I work in the field of what we call 'contrastive linguistics'. In short, I compare the different systems of languages. I am actually in search of corpuses made from translations, i.e. English/French or French/English corpuses, just like the one you can find on Rali, Transearch. Do you know if there are others available on the Web ?

    Thank you

    Agnes Leroux

    Message 2: Query: New used of 'Gay'

     Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002 13:43:57 -0400
    From: Dorine S. Houston <dshoustonearthlink.net>
    Subject: Query: New used of 'Gay'


    During a recent internet chat with several friends in as many countries, a woman in Hong Kong mentioned that there, young people have started using 'gay' to mean 'stupid', as in 'They have scheduled me 2 A-level exams for the same day. How gay.' A teacher in Edinburgh, said that among the children in her classroom, it has become a general- purpose insult. A Canadian woman (in BC) said that her children treat it as the worst possible insult. BYW, none of these people are linguists.

    I am wondering if any of you are seeing another shift in the meaning of this word (I remember when my grandmother described my Easter dress and hat, complimentarily, as being 'so gay'--having a cheerful, springy appearance). The second and third examples of this (?) shift may simply be examples of homophobic attitudes, the first, perhapas less so.

    Thank you! I'll summarize answers.

    Dorine - Dorine S. Houston, Director Institute for Global Communication 1420 Locust St., 17-R, Philadelphia, PA 19102 USA E-MAIL: dshoustonearthlink.net 215-732-5178