> Date:          Mon, 18 Oct 1999 09:11:50 -0500
> Reply-to:      Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
>                <[log in to unmask]>
> From:          Susan Witt <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject:       Re: the role of semantics
> To:            [log in to unmask]

Susan Witt wrote in part:

>  Perhaps, though, our associations of "migraine" and
> "excruciatingly painful" might lead one to use the word symbolically to
> express an extreme amount of pain in one's foot.
>
Susan, I am with you on this point.  Earlier on this list someone was
complaining about the lack of imagination (in connection with the
phase "begging the question"), presumably among students or younger
speakers of our language.  I think some of us "old doobers" have
shown quite a lack of imagination in commenting on the interesting,
playful, and imaginative sentence that Rick has presented to his
class.  And he seems to have elicited an abundance of interesting
analyses from his students.  They were probably stimulated by this
amusing metaphorical use of "migraine."
R. Michael Medley, Ph.D.
Director, Intensive English Program
Eastern Mennonite University
Harrisonburg, VA 22802
Office: (540) 432-4051
Home: (540) 574-4277