scare quotes
Byron Stoyles
the source of the term "scare quotes". Does anyone know the origin of
this term?
Michael DiCola
Fwom Elmer Fudd's The Wizawd of Oz.
Wif Dowothy, the Cowawdwy Wion and the Tin Man, went to the Emewawd City
to twy to find a way to get Dowothy back ova de wainbow to her fawm in Kansas.
Hope this helps. (Weawwy.)
--
Michael J
"My myopic view of life"
me and The Barras
DK
Byron Stoyles <bjst...@julian.uwo.ca> wrote in message
news:37835C42...@julian.uwo.ca...
> Can anyone help me? I have been troubled by not being able to determine
> the source of the term "scare quotes". Does anyone know the origin of
> this term?
>
I've never heard the term, but it looked like you could use a serious
response. Good luck; I'm interested in the answer too.
--Katrina
Skitt
DK <cooper17...@xs4all.nl> wrote in message
news:7m2f9g$n4i$4...@news1.xs4all.nl...
Perhaps this snippet might help:
=============
When sham and fake reasoning are ubiquitous, people become uncomfortably
aware, or half-aware, that reputations are made as often by clever
championship of the indefensible or the incomprehensible as by serious
intellectual work, as often by mutual promotion as by merit. Knowing, or
half-knowing, this, they become increasingly leery of what they hear and
read. Their confidence in what passes for true declines, and with it their
willingness to use the words "truth," "rationality," etc., without the
precaution of scare quotes. And as those scare quotes become ubiquitous,
people's confidence in the concepts of truth and reason falters, and one
begins to hear (from Richard Rorty): "I do not have much use for notions
like . . . `objective truth'," "`true' [is] a word which applies to those
beliefs
upon which we are able to agree," or (from Bruno Latour and Steve
Woolgar): "a fact is nothing but a statement with no modality . . . and no
trace of authorship," or (from Steve Fuller): "I don't see any clear
distinction between `good scholarship' and `political relevance.'"
=============
Source: http://www.csicop.org/si/9711/preposterism.html
--
Skitt (on Florida's Space Coast) http://skitt.i.am/
CAUTION: My veracity is under a limited warranty
Aaron J. Dinkin
> > Byron Stoyles <bjst...@julian.uwo.ca> wrote in message
> > news:37835C42...@julian.uwo.ca...
> > > Can anyone help me? I have been troubled by not being able to determine
> > > the source of the term "scare quotes". Does anyone know the origin of
> > > this term?
>
> Perhaps this snippet might help:
> =============
> Their confidence in what passes for true declines, and with it their
> willingness to use the words "truth," "rationality," etc., without the
> precaution of scare quotes. And as those scare quotes become ubiquitous,
> people's confidence in the concepts of truth and reason falters, and one
> begins to hear (from Richard Rorty): "I do not have much use for notions
> like . . . `objective truth'," "`true' [is] a word which applies to those
> beliefs upon which we are able to agree," or (from Bruno Latour and Steve
> Woolgar): "a fact is nothing but a statement with no modality . . . and no
> trace of authorship," or (from Steve Fuller): "I don't see any clear
> distinction between `good scholarship' and `political relevance.'"
But the quotes around "objective truth" and "true" in Rorty's quote in this
passage aren't scare quotes; they're quotes signifying words-as-words (or
in the case of "objective truth" notions-as-notions). The quotes around
"good scholarship" and "political relevance" are scare quotes, though: the
phrases they surround are being used with their ordinary syntactic value,
while the quotes signify that Fuller is referring not to what he would
describe as "good scholarship" but what other people use the term for. The
use of scare quotes is tantamount to using the word "so-called".
-Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom
Skitt
Aaron J. Dinkin <din...@fas.harvard.edu> wrote in message
news:dinkin-ya0231800...@news.nii.net...
>The use of scare quotes is tantamount to using the word "so-called".
Exactly, Aaron -- now why didn't *I* say that instead of "putzing around"?
Good work!
--
Skitt (on Florida's Space Coast) http://come.to/skitt/
... and that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped.
Michael A. Gaul
perhaps this would be a good example:
When I called the tech support hotline, one of their "experts" told me I
needed a new computer!
Actually this was just an excuse to complain about another...interesting...
use of quotation marks, this time from the Greyhound Bus terminals some
years ago:
These chairs for TV viewing only, "Please".
The use of quotes (rather than, say, italics) for emphasis seems completely
unjustified and yet it is more common than you would suppose, even among
those who should know better.
Donna Richoux
> Actually this was just an excuse to complain about
> another...interesting... use of quotation marks, this time from the
> Greyhound Bus terminals some years ago:
>
> These chairs for TV viewing only, "Please".
>
> The use of quotes (rather than, say, italics) for emphasis seems
> completely unjustified and yet it is more common than you would suppose,
> even among those who should know better.
The first one I remember noticing, many years ago, was a sign in a
laundromat.
Do not put
"Pillows"
in the
"Washers"
Best --- Donna Richoux
Michael Cargal
Perchprism
>From: car...@cts.com (Michael Cargal)
>Date: Fri, 09 July 1999 05:27 PM EDT
>Message-id: <37876940...@nntp.cts.com>
Our diner offers Roast Fresh "Ham" Pork.
Perchprism
(Official Panel Member, aue Summer Doldrums Competition)
DK
> >> Actually this was just an excuse to complain about
> >> another...interesting... use of quotation marks, this time from the
> >> Greyhound Bus terminals some years ago:
> >>
> >> These chairs for TV viewing only, "Please".
> >>
> >> The use of quotes (rather than, say, italics) for emphasis seems
> >> completely unjustified and yet it is more common than you would
suppose,
> >> even among those who should know better.
> >
> >The first one I remember noticing, many years ago, was a sign in a
> >laundromat.
> >
> > Do not put
> > "Pillows"
> > in the
> > "Washers"
>
> "Fresh" fish today.
I used to work in a cinema which sold: Fresh popcorn with "real" butter!
--Katrina