A Salt Hygrometer
19 hours ago
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Father and son
My son heard the word "aggressiveness" on TV; I think it was in an ad for a prescription drug. He grumbled that the word should be "aggression". I argued that the two words have slightly different meanings. He still maintained that when that kind of thing happens -- a noun derived from an adjective derived from (or at least related to) another noun -- or the other way round -- it means that something went wrong. I said no, it means that something went right. I don't think I can change his mind, but I did come up with a good line: I told him that, while he may think he is being rigorous, he's just being rigid.
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8 comments:
Well, okay, I'm muddling parts of speech as I tell the story, but wasn't that a good line? Gotta keep these kids in their place.
I've never seen a problem with changing the wording in a post if there's something wrong with it, I do it all the time.
That's a very good line.
I can see a difference between aggression (an act) & aggressiveness (a predisposition towards causing acts of aggression).
Something went wrong if there were a set of rules and either they were broken or something came up that wasn't covered by the rules, but there's no language police, no language jail, so the only penalty for breaking the rules is social pressure. The flip side of negative social pressure is acceptance, so if your son invents a new word and people start using it (and keep using it) eventually it will find its way into the dictionary. Having something wrong with it won't be grounds for its exclusion. Language is different from maths in that way, I guess.
And another thing: being rigorous has its place, but I don't want to be too relentless in my application of rigor. Sometimes there is a cost, sometimes not.
Post now changed, but comments not.
I like the particular example of rigid and its kin, because by the time they made their way to currrent English the Latin noun-adjective pair rigor/rigid grew semantically far enough apart in English that the noun wanted a new adjective (rigorous) and the adjective a new noun(rigidity).
Similarly with humor. And vapor.
That's a perfect line!
It must be great to have the last word in an argument with your children... That's something rare nowadays!
There's no such thing as the last word around here, but I was very pleased with myself.
I see I'm a month late, but I enjoyed your line too much not to let you know anyway.
I'm glad you enjoyed it -- and glad you reminded me, because it gives me a chance to enjoy it one more time.
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