Humorous Language
Language is a very interesting topic to study. We do not realize how important language is until we do not have the words to get our point across. If you have ever been someplace where someone was speaking to you in a language you did not understand, you know it can be disastrous.
There are many examples of how language can be misunderstood or have multiple meanings. Here are a few examples:
Football commentator and former player Joe Theismann: “Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.”
Shaquille O’Neal on whether he had visited the Parthenon during his visit to Greece: “I can’t really remember the names of the clubs that we went to.”
“When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world and we knew exactly who the they were. It was us versus them and it was clear who them was. Today, we’re not so sure who the they are, but we know they’re there.” George W. Bush
After you have read the textbook, find three examples of language that was misunderstood in some way. Do not present the same examples of any of your classmates or you will be asked for a new example. Explain the error in meaning, what the speaker should have said, and the impact that this error had.
The book is SOCIOLOGY: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION 11e Schaefer 2015 © McGraw-Hill, Inc. ISBN-10: 0078027101 ISBN-13: 9780078027109