Recursive snark
On things which tell you more about the speaker than the subject:
It’s an old trope, but I’ve just spotted it for the nth time over in a comment at Language Log, looking like this:
“Nonplussed” has joined the population of words that tell you more about the speaker than about the topic spoken of.
There’s a specific argument to be made here about what, exactly, that commenter thinks is said about a person who uses “nonplussed” in either of the two common contemporary senses. The extremely short version is: not much, actually, and so implying that it’s a telling slip is itself, well, a telling comment. Which brings me to the larger point:
As often as not, snarking that “[statement x] says more about the speaker than it does about the subject” says more about the snarker than it does about the snarkee.
Saying so puts me in tricky territory almost by definition, of course, but I’m willing to take one for the team in this case.
Esmeralda Said,
August 10, 2008 @ 1:55 pm
A little convoluted if you ask me. I say every action or statement says more about the preformer that the action or statement itself.
That’s just my broad, sweeping generalization for the day.
Bryn LaFollette Said,
August 11, 2008 @ 1:48 pm
I wholly agree with you on this observation on this point, and thereby would say that I disagree with Esmeralda’s statement, which is I think overly broad.
Josh Millard Said,
August 12, 2008 @ 12:40 pm
My broad sweeping generalization of the day:
Cindarella was a pretty good housecleaner before she got famous.