Re: The Dreaded Spelling Category

On Tue, 02 Oct 2007 22:19:54 -0700, Bob Cunningham
<exw6sxq@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Tue, 02 Oct 2007 23:17:25 -0400, Robert Lieblich
<r_s_lieblich@xxxxxxxxx> said:

One of the categories on tonight's Jeopardy: "The Scintallating 17th
Century." Yes, "scintAllating." It wasn't a pun, and it didn't have
anything to do with the questions and answers. Just a misspelling.

I wonder if Alex will issue a correction on "tomorrow"'s show.

I didn't notice it. Maybe Alex didn't.

I was probably preoccupied with wondering what was imagined
to be scintillating about the 17th century, or what play on
words might be intended. As many of us probably know, the
designers of the clues try hard to come up with clever
wordplay in the category labels. I don't sense any in "The
Scintillating 17th Century", but that doesn't mean it isn't
there.

By the way, "as many of us probably know" is yet another
example of an idiomatic expression that doesn't really say
what it means. It assigns the probability to the knowing,
while the understood meaning is that the probability goes
with the number of people. It would be more logically
accurate to say "as probably many of us know", but I doubt
that a lot of speakers would say it that way.

I see your point. Still, "probably" tends to get distributed. The
phrase "many of us" introduces a probabilistic element to start with.
Of each individual from the original "us", knowing nothing else about
them, it could be said that they "probably know".
--
John
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: The Dreaded Spelling Category
    ... Just a misspelling. ... I wonder if Alex will issue a correction on "tomorrow"'s show. ... Scintillating 17th Century", but that doesn't mean it isn't ... It assigns the probability to the knowing, ...
    (alt.usage.english)
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  • Re: The Dreaded Spelling Category
    ... to be scintillating about the 17th century, or what play on ... designers of the clues try hard to come up with clever ... Scintillating 17th Century", but that doesn't mean it isn't ... It assigns the probability to the knowing, ...
    (alt.usage.english)
  • Re: Food for Thought
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