tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8937414969460147900.post2387236924427375474..comments2024-03-06T07:06:38.928-08:00Comments on JSBlog - Journal of a Southern Bookreader: I cite the songs?Ray Girvanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05556764642402680159noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8937414969460147900.post-36134821064339827192010-11-06T01:04:51.252-07:002010-11-06T01:04:51.252-07:00Interesting.RG: ...(and even coin idioms thatRG: g...Interesting.<br><br>RG: ...(and even coin idioms that<br>RG: get into the language)...<br><br>That direction particularly so.<br><br>I'm aware that song titles and lyrics (and lines from fiction or poems, too) echo (entirely without conscious intent) in my day to day speech ... and even more so in my "peerformed speech" – when, for example, I lecture. I suspect that giving evidence in court might well fall into the latter category.<br><br>One level up, I find myself consciously quoting but without "intent aforethought", so to speak.<br><br>On Wednesday of this week, faced with a challenging question from a student (which I suppose is vaguely analogous to cross examination), I answered without thought or intent "and what have they done to the rain?". Everybody present was too young to recognise it, as I did even as I said it, as a Malvina Reynolds song refrain.<br><br>I do deliberately quote, very often, in "performed" speech and writing; I suppose that makes me more apt to do unconsciously that a police officer who doesn't spend so much of her/his time in deliberate performance as a lecturer and writer ... but, still, "it's just a matter of time" (Carol King: <i>Lover's Cross</i>!) before something close to her/his heart comes out under pressure. Perhaps, even, someone not used to "performing" is even more likely to unintentionally borrow the performed words of others?<br><br>I find this side avenue interesting, so I've meandered on about it, but the main point of course is the one you were making: the high statistical probability that, in any large body of speech, complete or close partial matches will occur for any chosen large corpus of public words such as song titles.Felixnoreply@blogger.com