Re: [tied] Re: Reversal of meanings

On Sun, 29 May 2005 05:57:52 +0000, pielewe
<wrvermeer@...> wrote:

>In Dutch the collocation meaning 'old whore, aged prostitute' can be
>used metaphorically in the meaning 'person who talks too much'. That
>is ordinary metaphorical use. That use has however given rise to a
>verb appr. 'act like an aged prostitute' used only with the
>meaning 'talk too much'. In the verb, the semantic link with
>prostitutes is much less clearly present, it is just a forceful way
>of saying 'talk too much'. (In some situations you can actually use
>it in a way that suggests it just means 'talk'.)

I was once told (by Karel van het Reve) the story of a
Leiden Slavist (or linguist, at any rate) who used to amuse
himself by going to the grocery store in a French-speaking
village and call the lady behind the counter an 'old whore'
(Ow&hu:r), upon which she sold him a yoghurt (Ö~yau:r). Who
was it?


=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...