Re: Re[2]: [tied] Languages Evolve in Punctuational Bursts

Because they've become taboo due to their secondary
meanings. You rarely hear them in modern English.
Ever watch the The Three Stooges? Remember they're
always using the term "puss" for "face". Ever heard
anyone use it that way recently?
In fact, the term "sourpuss" has been pretty much
replaced by "pussyface" among younger people as in
"Don't give me that pussyface!"

--- Patrick Ryan <proto-language@...> wrote:

> What do Dick and Peter or pussycat have to do with
> word taboos?
>
>
> Patrick
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Rick McCallister" <gabaroo6958@...>
> To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 2:49 PM
> Subject: Re: Re[2]: [tied] Languages Evolve in
> Punctuational Bursts
>
>
> > Really? How many young mengo by Dick and Peter
> these
> > days? Why do you only hear the term "pussycat" in
> old
> > movies, nursery rhymes and Bond films?
> >
> >
> > --- Patrick Ryan <proto-language@...> wrote:
> >
> > > That is very interesting. It would have never
> > > occurred to me as a causal
> > > factor.
> > >
> > >
> > > Patrick
> > >
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
> > > To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
> > > Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 1:35 AM
> > > Subject: Re[2]: [tied] Languages Evolve in
> > > Punctuational Bursts
> > >
> > >
> > > > Patrick Ryan <proto-language@...> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > [...]
> > > >
> > > > > Australian and Greenland Inuit: these
> > > populations are
> > > > > literally bombarded with non-Inuit material;
> and
> > > being
> > > > > small populations, they have no means of
> > > defending their
> > > > > linguistic cultural heritage.
> > > >
> > > > According to the Britannica:
> > > >
> > > > Greenlandic contains four loanwords from
> > > medieval
> > > > Norse; from the colonial period after 1721
> there
> > > have
> > > > been surprisingly few borrowings until the
> > > mid-20th
> > > > century.
> > > >
> > > > However, its speakers practise a form of word
> > > taboo that has
> > > > resulted in an unusually high rate of lexical
> > > turnover.
> > > >
> > > > Brian
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>

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