calque and others: words for a worded time

before i address the future of the Whig party (lo, a wondrous topic!), it seems high time I publish another word of the day column lest my readers further fret that i’ve abandoned my lexicographical ambitions for populous piffle. earlier today, in one such dispatch on the most watched television program of the year, i mentioned the bizarre transformation of “Naptown” into “City of Siestas.” though this at first seems a monstrosity, it is apparently an example of a well-known linguistic phenomenon called “calque.”

the OED defines a calque as, “a loan translation.” a brilliant simplification, if i may say so. most of the quotes are unhelpful, but the last one makes a lot of sense. “1958 A. S. C. ROSS Etym. 34 MnE that goes without saying is a translation-loan of (better, is calqued on) MnFrench cela va sans dire.” A calque is basically a phrase translated literally into another language. wikipedia, the repository of all the world’s information (non-Widener library edition), has this great page on calques.

bonus bellow love: rereading Herzog, I’m once again amazed by Bellow’s abilities with words. it’s a gift that the rest of us (non-DeLillo edition) don’t have. somewhere in Herzog, Bellow makes use of the Yiddish word kaddish in a slightly unusual context.  the kaddish is the memorial prayer, typically recited for one’s parents, and Yiddish speaking parents would often lovingly refer to their children as their kaddish, e.g. the one that will say kaddish for them. Bellow clearly uses the word in this sense in Herzog, however this is unfortunately missed by the volume’s editor, James Wood, who annotates the word as “memorial prayer.” while he’s right, he’s completely missed the sense of the use.

and as proof of his mastery of the english langauge: “out of the trapped air of the black shaft into the porphyry facade of the moldy lobby, into the crowded street.”

porphyry is not a noun in common currency. the word original refers to a specific type of purplish Egyptian stone, but has come to be extended to mean any “attractive red or purple stone taking a high polish.” this is almost definitely Bellow’s intended meaning. given its Egyptian, high polish origins, the word has a highbrow, stuffy nature about it. like the other locations, the “trapped” shaft, and the crowded street, the porphyry moldy lobby is lifeless and suffocating; it is also decayed. it is not just an ugly purple lobby, rather it is one that aspired to be something else.

A Girl With Nice Bangs and The Answers to Solving Political Apathy Among the Young and Intelligent

A girl sitting across from me on the subway this afternoon had very nice bangs. I started wondering what she’d look like without bangs, then I continued wondering, then, finally, I finished. Wondering. And then I laughed. Because she would have looked SO funny. Then I decided to blog. Then I blogged. Then I cleared my browser history, emptied my temporary internet files, hid the tissues under my bed, smoked a cigarette. Now I’m writing about political apathy.

The rest of the saladeers seem to be doing a fine job with political commentary without my having to chime in – so I’m not going to chime. Chime-a-lime. Chime-a-lime-dime. A-dinkle-do.

That was a song.

Anyway, all I want to say is this: when it comes to politics – I don’t care.

It really bothers me that I don’t care. I tried, today on the subway when I was done laughing at the bang-ed girl, to care about politics. Because I know that political apathy is a problem. But is it my problem?

2007 Watch: Why the Indianapolis Colts Will Not Win the Championship

I had once again hoped that ‘designed’lateral would write this piece. I tried to call his cell phone, but it did not ring; I sent him e-mails, but they bounced back; I sent him post only to receive a notice from the Postman that Mr. Lateral would only accept mail in Latin. Finally, I called the main switchboard of Le Monde Diplomatique, where Mr. Lateral writes a weekly structuralist analysis on American Football called, “Barthes’ Barbaric Extra Point,” and they informed me that he was off the grid, trapped in the Burmese mountains trying to find the last vestige of proto-football. They say they occasionally receive notes from him via semaphore, each more brilliant than the next. We all hope he lives.

But the show must go on, and someone must explain why the Indianapolis Colts will not be victorious, why the modern monsters of the midway will defeat their rivals. There are many reasons, but, once again, here are four.

1. The Obama Factor. Is it just a coincidence that Barack Obama’s campaign has skyrocketed at the same time that the Bears have managed to crush their playoff foes? Of course not! Once the media has a theme, they stick with it. Right now Illinois is in (perhaps its time for Sufjan to record an Illinois 3?) and Indiana is out. Barack Obama is on the ascent, and Senator Lugar is on the decline, losing the chairmanship of the foreign relations committee to our beloved Joe Biden. Even if the Bears somehow lose the game, the media will somehow spin the story into a Bears/Illinois victory. I’d stake my pulitzer on it!

2008 Watch: How Hillary Clinton Plans on Winning

Who Should Write Superman? Part 4

In light of the comments left by JT, I decided to bump up this week’s “Who Should Write Superman?”, and profile a woman I feel could have a terrific run with the Man of Tomorrow: Jhumpa Lahiri. In my first post, extolling the virtues of Thomas Pynchon’s madcap, conspiracy afflicted Superman, I explained that, in my mind, the ideal Superman was monumental and larger than life. Superman needs to be trapped by an array of implausible, earth threatening forces. He should be forced to interact with some of the more bizarre DC characters like the Phantom Stranger and Adam Strange, characters whose appearances signal the fact that forces are now outside the man of steel’s control. Death for all needs to be on the horizon.

 

But there’s also a different type of Superman story: the value filled emotional struggle. Jhumpa Lahiri seems to me the perfect author for that type of tale.

2008 Watch: How Joe Biden Plans on Winning

We already know that Joe Biden will not be president, but that sure isn’t stopping him from running. In fact, he is so serious about running that he is declaring his candidacy for at least the fourth time on Wednesday. While he hasn’t explicitly said he’s “in to win” (nor repeated that fact constantly), surely he has some plan for victory. So how exactly is Biden’s madcap campaign going to get him over the top?

Biden’s run can be generously termed a long shot. He will need to show he can raise money early on in order to be taken seriously by next year. Kerry’s exit from the race should help with that as Biden can now better capitalize on his Boston donors, but his senate fund only has a few million. As a result, Biden will lag behind the top tier in available money. This immediately dumps him in with the peasants at the bottom of the field; fighting for scraps of attention. If Biden wants to become president, he will have to find some way to distinguish himself from the pack and remain viable through the early primaries. This means that he will have to win one of the first four states: Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, or South Carolina. If Biden cannot manage a victory in any of those states, he will quickly be written off, leaving his campaign penniless.

Literature Through the Ages Explained (For Women)

There was a man.
He hurt me.
I cried.
I got angry.
I did something (ate ice cream).
I met another.

Literature Through the Ages Explained (For Men)

There was a woman.
She hurt me.
I cried.
I got angry.
I did something.
I met another.

wotd: gadfly

i’m a big supporter of the whole “free books. free reviews” project. in fact, i may have suggested the idea. but such is the curse of the editor that he can only receive credit when he acts like a jerk and takes it. in that spirit, the best book i ever found in the Powell’s free bin was, “The Gadfly,” which the cover thankfully informed me was the #1 selling american novel in the soviet union (has there ever been a better cover blurb?). Shortly after ganking the book, I began to use the word whenever possible.

and i think i’ve been misusing it.

i’ve always assumed that the word comes from gad-about, or, to be more correct, “gad-v2″: “To go from one place to another, to wander; esp. to wander about with no serious object, stopping here and there, to rove idly. Also to gad about, abroad, out.” an initial look at the AHD suggests I’m wrong. their first definition for “gadfly” is: “a persistent irritating critic; a nuisance” (i guess I really am a gadfly…); and the second is: “one that intitialacts as a provocative stimulus.” nowhere is the idea of idling present.

thankfully the OED assures me that I’m not incorrect. while their first definition is the actual fly, and their second definition is the nuisance, the third (albeit disappearing) definition is, one who gads about. seeing as the english language also has the noun, “gadabout,” one prone to gadding about, it makes sense that the third definition of gadfly is disappearing. this is also a good illustration of poststructuralism’s contention that we need to be mindful of a word’s etymology when we read. as used, gadfly could mean many different things.

“gad-v2″ is actually of questionable origin. though many believe that it comes from “gad-n1″, the fly, the OED quotes imply that the word comes from the now obsolete, “gadling”: a wanderer or vagabond (also, a companion). gadling is from the gothic and means companion.

i can’t actually say whether or not the gadfly in the book is a harmless idler or a nuissance. unlike mr. butawhimper, i couldn’t make it past the yellow brittle paper stock, and the book has languished on my shelves.

2008 Watch: Why Hillary Clinton Will Not Be President

To the surprise of everyone, Senator Hillary Clinton recently declared her intentions to run for president. She is leading in the early national polls (which is worth, at best, absolutely nothing) and has the most extensive fund raising network of any 2008 contender. She intends to raise so much money, in fact, that she is completely forgoing public funds–a feat even George W. Bush’s legendary fund raising team never managed. Still, Clinton is a remarkably flawed candidate. She is stiff, brazenly calculating, and wrong on the issues. Even so, her war chest will keep her in the race for as long as she wants to be. And yet, our finest seers in the SaladCorp Oracles and Lawncare Division have properly read the entrails and seen the birds in flight: Hillary Clinton will not be president. While we have made stunning advances in divination over the years, it is up to me to show the reasons behind Clinton’s foretold demise.

1) The Constitution

During the 1992 campaign, Bill Clinton remarked that he and Hillary were going to be like “co-presidents” and that voting for him was like getting two for the price of one. Using that logic, Hillary has already served two terms and is therefore ineligible to run again under the 22nd amendment. Should she be elected, she cannot serve. While this argument would never hold up in court, chances are there would never be a trial. Across the land, courts have been derelict in their judicial duties, creating an extensive backlog of cases. Why? Because activist judges are spending all their time (and the taxpayer’s dime) breaking up weddings and shooting babies with the guns they took from honest hunters.