In 'Toward a new taxonomy for pragmatic inference' (now repr. in A. Kasher,
_Implicature_, Routledge, Pragmatics Critical Concepts) L. R. Horn refers
to "R-based" narrowings and strenghtenings -- with "R" standing for Grice's
'Relation', i.e. 'be relevant'. Horn is there especially interested in
_diachronic_ illustrations, and writes:
"Narrowing generally involves an R-based shift
from a set denotation to a subset (or member)
of that set, representing the salient or
stereotypicapl exemplar of the general
category. [...] The shift [may] become virtually
complete (although the original, broader
extension may persisit in marginal uses)."
(op. cit., p. 32).
A special type of narrowing is of the 'phoric' (e.g. 'anaphoric',
'autophoric', or more general 'reference-assignment') kind, and Levinson
discusses these cases at large in his _Presumptive Meanings_. It all
relates, I was meditating, to what
http://www.eurofinder.at/weblog/swear.html
"The Fat, Drunken Englishman's Guide to Swear Words"
refers to as 'the biggie':
motherf*cker: The biggie. The Oedipal
double. The original twelve-letter word.
Listen to some rap music, watch American
action films. Say this word all the time and
pretend you're Ice Cube/Bruce Willis.
It always struck me that "the fat, drunken Englishman" would take it as so
monotonically for granted that 'motherf*cker' +> 'copulator of _one's own_
mother'. It may be a sad reflection of current affairs that it's again a
Brit(ish person) who has to illustrate us on this quintessential
Americanism. Thus I read from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A753527
"The origins & common usage of British swear-words"
"A phrase that, until recently, was almost
exclusively American, is 'mother-f****r'.
Despite sounding very Oedipal, this does not
have Freudian derivations. The word was apparently
coined by African slaves to describe the slave
owners who had raped the slave's [sic] mothers.
Simple as that."
But -- is _it_ 'simple as that'? Can an entrenched, however defeasible,
R-based phoric implicature be erased from the "mind" of the utterers (if
only our 'fat drunken Englishman') like _that_.
Cheers,
JL
==
J L Speranza, Esq
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St Michael's Hall Suite 5/8
Calle 58, No 611 Calle Arenales 2021
La Plata CP 1900 Recoleta CP 1124
Tel 00541148241050 Tel 00542214257817
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina
Telefax 00542214259205
http://www.netverk.com.ar/~jls/
jls@netverk.com.ar
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