Linguists are spokespersons for the chief
(the title is not the actual quote (see below) - after all our feminist linguistic discussions I just couldn't leave it with 'spokesman')
This is a little passage from Crystal about Global English that made me laugh out loud:
(It do wonder how they got to these meanings for heavy and brutal. The others seem like more or less likely misunderstandings in a colonial setting - but these??)
This is a little passage from Crystal about Global English that made me laugh out loud:
In Ghana, we find heavy in the sense of 'gorgeous' and brutal in the sense of 'very nice', and a number of semantic shifts, including maiden name meaning 'given name' (applied to males) and linguist meaning 'spokesman for the chief'.(Crystal 2003: 160f.)
(It do wonder how they got to these meanings for heavy and brutal. The others seem like more or less likely misunderstandings in a colonial setting - but these??)
