---- Conversations with Victor Borge: The Gricean Analysis
---- By J. L. S.
IT WAS the inflationary language of logicland, i.e. logiclandian, that reminded Kramer of Victor Borge. Kramer writes:
"Somehow, the arbitrariness of
Logiclandians choosing the vernacular
as the source of their vocabulary,
grammar, and syntax reminded me of
this classic bit by the late Victor Borge."
Let's consider some of his inflated terms and see if we can find some grice to them.
Borge was born in Denmark, and after a error of usage or grammar, he would add, "It's not my language, I'm just trying to use it". It's inflationary when it's "twoderful" instead of 'wonderful', or "onebama" instead of "obama", or "argentwentysomethingina", or "elevenderly", from 'tenderly', and "twice upon a time", or "I nined an elevenderloin with my fivek" -- an inflated version of “I ate a tenderloin with my fork”. And so on, and so fifth. Other conversational moves, include, "Anytwo for elevennis?" "Fivegone conclusion". "That made my days". "My grandfather gave me this watch ... a few minutes before he died ... for 20 bucks ... plus tax". Genius!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
He makes me feel like an absolute one.
ReplyDeleteYes. Oddly I must have seen his grave. He is buried in my favourite town in Connecticut, Greenwich, complete with the Little Maid of his childhood. I've never seen a more picturesque town than Greenwhich: it has _everything_. Manhattan skyline as you bathe on Long Island Sound, glorious woods as you approach the water, nice coves like "Old Greenwhich proper", a cute Main Street, and a lot of history. Borge was also famous for his 'orthographic speech'. There are various stages to analyse his commentaries. Some, indeed, look like Yogisms, "I thank my father for making this night possible and my son for making it necessary". "Who exploded?" upon someone sneezing. "There are three Bachs, Sebastian, Johann, and Offen." Some idioms remind one of "How I Met My Wife", THIS BLOG, i.e. the ability to detect a pattern in a lexeme and make the most of it. But whereas the author of "How I met my wife" is (Horn introduced him to me) a 'negaholic', Borge is the greatest Dane optimist. So it's "twice upon a time" and "she made my days". Etc.
ReplyDeleteBorge was a favorite of mine as a kid. His occasional TV appearances were a treat. Not a bad piano player by all accounts. He was good buds with Leonid Hambro. This montage includes the musical equivalent of blaming the shopping list for including something the store isn't selling.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the montage, L. J. Kramer: beautiful. Indeed a great pianist. And one of his good mottos in that front: "Steinway and Sons! And I didn't know he was married". When he offers Leonid, "Take a seat -- or two", there's a lot if implicature going on. The whole montage trades on there being one ONE 'seat' for the piano. But people do use "or two" colloquially, as when we say, "or something". It does strike as a good _LOGICAL_ application of the 'vel' of the Romans (p v q). In the case of
ReplyDelete"Take a seat or two", it also trades on the inappropriate of the verb, 'take', when understood literally. Cfr. German, "nehmen Sie bitte Platz". It's not "take a seat" as "take a drink". "Use a sit" or just "Sit, please", etc. Also the 'a' in "a seat" is not necessary, as we see, in German, "Nehem Sie Bitte Platz", i.e 'take seat'. By using the 'tag', "or two" he is emphasising the original numerical entailment of 'a seat', 'one seat'. That 'a' in 'a seat' is possibly a very English thing that Borge would not have a need for in his native Danish. He had a most warm, pleasant personality. A gentleman, as my mother is prone to say. Etc.