I didn’t know that the technical term for “another one of those irregular verbs” was “emotive conjugations.” Wikipedia has the story:
In rhetoric, emotive or emotional conjugation mimics the form of a grammatical conjugation of an irregular verb to illustrate humans’ tendency to describe their own behavior more charitably than the behavior of others.[1] It is often called the Russell conjugation in honour of philosopher Bertrand Russell who expounded the concept in 1948 on the BBC Radio programme The Brains Trust,[2] citing the examples:[3]
I am firm, You are obstinate, He is a pig-headed fool.
I am righteously indignant, you are annoyed, he is making a fuss over nothing.
I have reconsidered the matter, you have changed your mind, he has gone back on his word.
Used seriously, such loaded language[3] can lend false support to an argument by obscuring a fallacy of meaning. The inherent incongruity also lends itself to humor,[4] as employed by Bernard Woolley in theBBC television series Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister:[5][6]
It’s one of those irregular verbs, isn’t it?
I have an independent mind, You are eccentric, He is round the twist.[6]That’s another of those irregular verbs, isn’t it?
I give confidential press briefings; you leak; he’s being charged under section 2A of theOfficial Secrets Act.[7]
Comments
8 responses to “The Russell conjugation”
Didn’t know there was a term for it till now! Thought it was just typical of how we tend to (mis~)use language as humans.
Thanks – something new I’ve learnt today.
Oooh, I like this one. I’ll have to remember it.
One of my favourites(?) is constantly on the news. We and our allies have governments. They have a regime.
Now you’re just being pedantic; I, OTOH, simply like being clear.
Karellen, you might like some of these; Slate has ocassionally done stories on US events as they might be written about other countries:
http://www.slate.com/topics/i/if_it_happened_there.html
My favorite of this: Horses sweat, men perspire, women ‘glow’.
I think I get it. I use an emotive conjugation, you use one of those irregular verbs, he is Bertrand Russell.
anthrosciguy
August 18, 2015 at 10:48 am
Now you’re just being pedantic; I, OTOH, simply like being clear.
*They* are nit-picking.