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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2010speaks to??
Quoting a news headline: Wave of retirements speaks to uncertainty about 2010 elections. The "speaks to" is interesting and has been annoying me for the several years since it crawled into the popular lexicon. Does anyone know where it originated?  SignatureWork is the curse of the drinking class. >Quoting a news headline: > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >several years since it crawled into the popular lexicon. Does anyone >know where it originated? No. The OED has it as an obsolete sense. It may have been revived or reinvented. 14. speak to. f. To give (or {obs}constitute) evidence regarding (a thing); to attest, bear testimony to. 1624 BP. R. MONTAGU Immed. Addr. 201 [These] speake indeed to the practise since it was in beginning. SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.english.usage) >>The "speaks to" is interesting and has been annoying me for the >>several years since it crawled into the popular lexicon. Does anyone [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > The OED has it as an obsolete sense. It may have been revived or > reinvented. People of my grandparents' generation were still using it in the '60s. Stewie Griffin - the baby in Family Guy, who speaks in a plummy English accent apparently based on Rex Harrison's - used the expression a year or so ago. (I think it was mentioned hereabouts at the time.) Perhaps that has led to its being revived. Peter (UK) >Quoting a news headline: > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >several years since it crawled into the popular lexicon. Does anyone >know where it originated? I think it's decades old, maybe older, but it may have gotten very popular lately. Although I haven't noticed that. Your example is definitely "unnerving", much worse than many other uses I've seen. How can a wave speak to uncertainty. How can retirments speak to uncertainty. They might remind us of uncertainty, or be a reason for uncertainty. SignaturePosters should say where they live, and for which area they are asking questions. I was born and then lived in Western Pa. 10 years Indianapolis 7 years Chicago 6 years Brooklyn, NY 12 years Baltimore 26 years > >Quoting a news headline: > [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > Brooklyn, NY 12 years > Baltimore 26 years Oh, come on. Never heard of a metaphor? -John Lawler * http://www.umich.edu/~jlawler All kinds of things can "speak", metaphorically speaking. "X speaks to Y", as Peter pointed out, is centuries old and quite common (though I'd consider it rather high-register. English is not spoken by machines, and literal meaning is almost always the wrong way to interpret it. And it's always the wrong way to figure out what's correct. -John Lawler * http://www.umich.edu/~jlawler "Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language." -- Ludwig Wittgenstein >> >Quoting a news headline: >> [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] >All kinds of things can "speak", >metaphorically speaking. There are many metaphoric uses of "speak to" that I"m fine with. I'm just not sure about this one. (which is a weaker statement than I made the first time.) >"X speaks to Y", as Peter pointed out, is >centuries old and quite common (though [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > of our intelligence by means of language." > -- Ludwig Wittgenstein SignaturePosters should say where they live, and for which area they are asking questions. I was born and then lived in Western Pa. 10 years Indianapolis 7 years Chicago 6 years Brooklyn, NY 12 years Baltimore 26 years > >Quoting a news headline: > > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > retirments speak to uncertainty. They might remind us of uncertainty, > or be a reason for uncertainty. It's the "constitutes evidence of" meaning (obsolete according to OED) that Peter Duncanson quoted. SignatureJohn Varela Trade NEWlamps for OLDlamps for email |
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