Saturday, October 23, 2010

further discussion


One concept that I would personally like to go further into discussion about is Concealed claims. In chapter 9, Epstein talks about  the many ways we  conceal claims through our choice of words. Slanters , which are any literary devices that attempt to convince by using words that conceal a dubious claim, are the most common.  Slanters can present either  a positive or negative spin on something. For example euphemisms are words or phrases that make something sound better than a neutral description. Euphemisms are used in every day life and throughout our lifetime we have heard a number of them.
A euphemism for dying is “to pass away.”  Dysphemisms are words or phrases that make something sound worse that a neutral description. A dysphemism for a used car would be “junker.” Other types of concealed claims include downplayers which are words or phrases that minimize the significance of a claim and up players which exaggerate the significance.
http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/cumming/ling50/euphemism%2Bdysphemism.htm

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