Language Log

Type and token, use and mention

From the book description on amazon.com for Simon Bronner, Manly Traditions: The Folk Roots of American Masculinities:

Here we have a triple pun on

It's in construction with three coordinated predicate nominals -- a myth, an oxymoron, a moron -- and has a different sense in each case.  So this is a species of syllepsis, a phenomenon we return to on Language Log every so often (search on syllepsis for the history).


First, there's a sense in which (1) refers to a type, as in


parallel to


versus the sense of (1) in which it refers to a token or instance, as in


conveying that any sensitive, caring man is a moron.  These two senses are not really compatible -- that's part of the humorous effect -- since it follows from (2) that there are no sensitive, caring men, while (3) implicates (but does not entail) that there are some sensitive, caring men (who are all morons).

On top of this, there's the sort of use-mention pun I referred to in an earlier Language Log posting.  In


the expression in (1) is mentioned rather than used: (4) makes a claim about a linguistic expression, not about men (while (2) and (3) are about men).

The humor is improved some by the alliteration in myth (2) and moron (3) and by the relationship between oxymoron (4) and moron (3).

A bonus: the book description has an instance of the "truncated concessive" (without or not) that I talked about a little while ago:


Posted by Arnold Zwicky at January 12, 2008 01:01 PM