Why do Americans say they 'could care less'

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

My biggest bugbear is the 'specific' / 'pacific' thing. So many seemingly intelligent people at work say things like; "Can you give us a pacific example of that?" .

next time, you should tell them "no, but i can give you an atlantic example..."

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by CathalMagus

Sigh... I've got past the point of shouting at the BBC when they misuse "begs the question" (a hint - every time they use it... it's in the wrong context). I think the phrase will be lost to legitimate usage before long. The problem with language evolving in these arbitrary ways is that if I should ever say "Well, yes, but your argument begs the question!" people will ask "What question?". It's not a zero-sum game.

http://begthequestion.info/

you could print out cards with the url.

[nekokami]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

http://begthequestion.info/

you could print out cards with the url.

Wikipedia has a better guess (in my opinion) as to the origin of this confusion:

A possible origin for this confusion in usage is the likeness of the word "beg" to the word "beget", which can mean "to originate." The phrase "to beget the question" might have been confused in time with the similar-sounding (but very different) notion from logic "to beg the question". An example of this usage is found in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume, published in 1748: "This begets a very natural question; What is meant by a sceptic?" (Section XII).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beg_the_question

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by nekokami

Wikipedia has a better guess (in my opinion) as to the origin of this confusion:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beg_the_question

yeah but i like the slogan of that other site : "beg the question : get it right."

[nekokami]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

yeah but i like the slogan of that other site : "beg the question : get it right."

Oh, I'll give you that it's a cool site. I just felt like sharing some pedantry. (This is the right thread for that, right? )

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by nekokami

Oh, I'll give you that it's a cool site. I just felt like sharing some pedantry. (This is the right thread for that, right? )

aren't they all, around here ? (you want me to lend you my pendant ?)

[nekokami]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

(you want me to lend you my pendant ?)

Hm... I was going to politely refuse, as I've got plenty here, but... does it have any magical powers?

(Preferably the power to turn a stack of unsorted references into a 5 page philosophy paper, double-spaced....)

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by nekokami

Hm... I was going to politely refuse, as I've got plenty here, but... does it have any magical powers?

(Preferably the power to turn a stack of unsorted references into a 5 page philosophy paper, double-spaced....)

hm, well it's more an honorary sort of thing (The Pendant of Pedantry) but given it's a product of the llounge, probably, yeah. you test it out on that paper and let me know how it works for you.

[Andurian]

One I've seen on TV twice in the last couple of weeks is, in praise of food items, "Each bite is better than the next!"

First time I heard it I coughed the coke I was drinking through my nose.

[Daithi]

I think it's a combination of sloppiness and that some of us Americans get confused by the word "not".

I remember being a kid and getting in trouble (a common occurance) and my dad would say something like "You don't want a spanking do you?"

I was never sure how to answer that question. If I said "Yes" I was afraid he would think I wanted the spanking. I was pretty sure my dad wanted to hear me say "No," but even when I was 5 or 6 I knew something wasn't quite right.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

when they mean they 'could not care less'?

Because it's like a lot of figures of speech, they get changed and corrupted over time, and frequently it's the corrupted versions that catch on. Not much more than that to it really.

You could probably start a whole forum based on nothing but sayings that don't make much sense, but probably did to someone at sometime, and then someone heard it wrong, or said it wrong .... and it was all downhill from there.

[Daithi]

One of my favorites is "She thinks she's hot shit."

[thibaulthalpern]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

when they mean they 'could not care less'?

In American English, "could care less" and "could not care less" means the same thing. Why that is, I don't know.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by thibaulthalpern

In American English, "could care less" and "could not care less" means the same thing. Why that is, I don't know.

the beauty and enrichment of a language so divided by a large body of salty water and a few hundred years of history....

[mogui]

Originally Posted by Daithi

I think it's a combination of sloppiness and that some of us Americans get confused by the word "not".

I remember being a kid and getting in trouble (a common occurance) and my dad would say something like "You don't want a spanking do you?"

I was never sure how to answer that question. If I said "Yes" I was afraid he would think I wanted the spanking. I was pretty sure my dad wanted to hear me say "No," but even when I was 5 or 6 I knew something wasn't quite right.

What a great thread this is!

English speakers in China often carry over their response to questions from the Mandarin. If you ask them, "You don't want a spanking do you?", they will say "yes". Why? Because they are responding to the truth or falsity of the question, rather than the content of it. The response often turns out to be the opposite of what we expect and creates many misunderstandings. But it is great fun to try and teach them the other answer form.