By J. L. Speranza, Esq.
for the Grice Club
The following from Quinion's today's "World Wide Words" -- it may have a general bearing with Grice's so-called (by him, surely) "conversational category of Quantity".
"ONPASSING To judge from incoming comments, "onpassing" is fairly
widespread and common in newspapers and broadcasting and goes back
decades. Doug Fisher, a former AP news editor, noted, "AP had an
internal message wire on which such usages were frequent, such as
'wx' for 'weather,' 'whether' or 'Washington'; 'onpass'; 'upsend';
'overhead' (meaning to use the phone, not the wire); 'sappest'
(meaning urgent, easier to type than the all-cap ASAP, I guess). As
a result, it also became common jargon in many newsrooms." Chips
Mackinolty and Jonathan Kern both noted the word in the similar
compressed language, often called telegraphese or cablese, used for
cables to and from reporters overseas. These were charged by the
word and the need for economy in phrasing led to inventiveness."
Kramer may agree.
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Yes. (I considered the more compact "Y," as in Y/N?, but figured it might be translated "Why?"
ReplyDeleteBTW, I h8 Textese. I'm not sure why - maybe just because I don't speak it.
Good. That entry from Quinion went on. It included the apocryphal cable from a news editor to a corresponding author:
ReplyDelete-- WHY UNNEWS?
The reply went:
"UNNEWS GOOD NEWS"
--
The editor still replied:
"UNNEWS UNJOB"
or something.
I saw "Cabaret", with Liza Minnelli, about 20 times, since I think it's my best favourite film ever. At one point she complains that her father, who is attache to the American embassy (somewhere -- it is never clear) she is crying and thus finds her her lover (played by Michael York). One of the most moving scenes. So Liza (who plays Sally Bowles, based on Isherwood's short story, but this must have been an invention of the playwright, "I am a camera") she recites the telegram she just received from her father.
She counts the words. It's 10. "More than 10 is a different price", she adds grimly. "That's dad".
Ah well.
Since I wrote on negation, etc., the item "unnews" I should report on Horn. I'm sure he is aware of this (cfr. 'negative inflation').
"No news" is two words. "unnews" is one.
I would think that if that, the criterion is odd. The charge should be by SLOT (whether a letter of the null symbol)
thus:
NO NEWS
is
1233567 slots
NO-NEWS
UNNEWS
is
123456 -- 6 slots. Briefer indeed (Grice, "Be brief"). But I was thinking that on occasion, it would NOT be economical if you have a very long word --:
"Have a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious birthday!"
-- counts as 4 words?
-- and that it would be more economical to have perhaps more words (say 6) but briefer:
"Have a great incredible birthday".
Or something. In terms of 'slots', the 'superc.' message, while having FEWER words, has MORE slots than the 'great incredible' (two words rather than one).
Or something.