Discussion Groups / British English / September 2004

Google is your friend!

This isn't what I would call an idiom, but I did find two (and only two)
references to this phrase on the Internet, one of which gives an
explanation. This is a discussion of Portuguese conversational norms
written by a woman whose name seems to be Portuguese, so I suspect taht
the phrase is a word-for-word translation of a Portuguese phrase. Her
definition is as follows "bald on record (direct comments, with no
attention paid to the wants or needs of the hearer)". You can find the
whole text at http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol9/issue1/oliveira.html -
it's in the section on politeness and impoliteness.

The other text on politeness of political interviews examines a fairly
hostile interview of Tony Blair by David Frost and contains the
sentence: "Be direct – by going bald on record, and avoiding redress,
the questions can be asked in the maximally efficient manner." This
would seem to negate my theory about the phrase being Portuguese in
origin. As examples of this the text gives: "what can you do about (.)
all of that ...?", "why not?", "is that true?" among others. you can
find the article at http://www.yoell.fsnet.co.uk/nature%20of%20language.htm

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan