through the language glass; language and mind; robt lane-greene

[Michael Bailey]

interesting link; thanks, alice!

the part about "disinterested' coming to mean the same as
'uninterested" - where the interviewee says he doesn't think enough
people have abandoned the idea of 'disinterested" as meaning impartial
to say that's completely true...

- but hasn't the concept of 'interest' itself eroded away to 2
different rocks --

 interest as perking up your ears

or "financial" interest, which has to be made explicit...
although maybe people who are really into money would say they are the
same thing


there isn't a cognate difference between 'un" and "dis' that would
reasonably link one prefix to one of the 2 meanings and not the other
- it's all usage, custom...

like Grimm's law, some barbarians sitting around a campfire and going
'ok, starting tomorrow, f is the new p"

or Samuel johnson and william Safire sitting around making the choice
of whether 'un' or 'dis' is the prefix that refers to financial,
rather than sensory, interest

and then Fox news and the marines enforce the decision

now you see the inherent violence of the system!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAaWvVFERVA




-

“It is difficult/to get the news from poems/yet men die miserably
every day/for lack/of what is found there” - William Carlos Williams