Enforcing or effacing useful distinctions?
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Don Chapman
Abstract
This paper examines the development of infer and imply from their first uses in the fifteenth century to the present, using the EEBO and COHA corpora. Both words have more complex histories than the prescriptive rule regulating them would suggest, and their development illustrates the movement towards subjective and intersubjective meanings often seen in semantic change. Both words began with an ‘impersonal entail’ sense, which developed into a ‘personal suggest’ sense for imply, and possibly for some instances of infer. Two other paths to the proscribed ‘suggest’ sense of infer become noticeable in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. First, the ‘deduce’ sense of infer started to be used in contexts in which someone both presumably made an inference and reported that inference. Second, infer began to be used to soften possibly face-threatening statements. The rise of the prescriptive rule, however, likely effaced, rather than encouraged, this nascent distinction.
Abstract
This paper examines the development of infer and imply from their first uses in the fifteenth century to the present, using the EEBO and COHA corpora. Both words have more complex histories than the prescriptive rule regulating them would suggest, and their development illustrates the movement towards subjective and intersubjective meanings often seen in semantic change. Both words began with an ‘impersonal entail’ sense, which developed into a ‘personal suggest’ sense for imply, and possibly for some instances of infer. Two other paths to the proscribed ‘suggest’ sense of infer become noticeable in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. First, the ‘deduce’ sense of infer started to be used in contexts in which someone both presumably made an inference and reported that inference. Second, infer began to be used to soften possibly face-threatening statements. The rise of the prescriptive rule, however, likely effaced, rather than encouraged, this nascent distinction.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Uncovering layers of meaning in the history of the English language 1
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Part I. Graphemics and phonology
- Layers of reading in the Old English Bede 19
- Unlikely-looking Old English verb forms 39
- On the importance of noting uncertainty in etymological research 63
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Part II. Lexicology and semantics
- “A Wiltshire word, according to Kennett” 81
- Enforcing or effacing useful distinctions? 99
- The role of context in the meaning specification of cant and slang words in eighteenth-century English 129
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Part III. Syntax
- Let’s talk about uton 157
- Exploring part-of-speech profiles and authorship attribution in Early Modern medical texts 185
- The positioning of adverbial clauses in the Paston letters 211
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Part IV. Genres
- Complexity and genre conventions 233
- Formulaic discourse across Early Modern English medical genres 257
- “Treasure of pore men”, “countrymans friend” or “gentlewomans companion”? 301
- “I saw ye Child burning in ye fire” 319
- Name index 343
- Subject index 345
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Uncovering layers of meaning in the history of the English language 1
-
Part I. Graphemics and phonology
- Layers of reading in the Old English Bede 19
- Unlikely-looking Old English verb forms 39
- On the importance of noting uncertainty in etymological research 63
-
Part II. Lexicology and semantics
- “A Wiltshire word, according to Kennett” 81
- Enforcing or effacing useful distinctions? 99
- The role of context in the meaning specification of cant and slang words in eighteenth-century English 129
-
Part III. Syntax
- Let’s talk about uton 157
- Exploring part-of-speech profiles and authorship attribution in Early Modern medical texts 185
- The positioning of adverbial clauses in the Paston letters 211
-
Part IV. Genres
- Complexity and genre conventions 233
- Formulaic discourse across Early Modern English medical genres 257
- “Treasure of pore men”, “countrymans friend” or “gentlewomans companion”? 301
- “I saw ye Child burning in ye fire” 319
- Name index 343
- Subject index 345
