On Tuesday, January 17, 2023 at 9:43:39 PM UTC-7, Madhu wrote:
> * "Peter T. Daniels" <2b968e59-51bd-4c8b-967e-dd31dc02ef07n @googlegroups..com> :
> Wrote on Sat, 14 Jan 2023 08:06:59 -0800 (PST):
> > On Saturday, January 14, 2023 at 3:15:28 AM UTC-5, Hibou wrote:
> >> Le 13/01/2023 à 16:12, Peter T. Daniels :
> >> > On Friday, January 13, 2023 at 1:41:20 AM UTC-5, Hibou wrote:
> >>> >> The classic and more economical construction, without the 'for', is the
> >> >> older, it seems: [...] "Mrs Bretton's is very large, though: I
> >> >> should love you to have such a house; but it will take a great
> >> >> deal of furniture - carpeting and everything, besides plate and
> >> >> glass" - George Eliot, 'Middlemarch', 1871. "'You are a dear. I
> >> >> should love you to. And everyone knows you've got perfect taste'"
> >> >> - Arnold Bennett, 'The Night Visitor and Other Stories', 1931.
> >> >> "'She would love you to be gipsies,' said the old woman" - 'The
> >> >> Royal Magazine', 1901. My own interpretation is that the
> >> >> superfluous 'for' is an example of linguistic inflation, to which
> >> >> Americans are more inclined than Britons.
> >> > Yes, your examples from a century (and a half) ago do sound archaic.
> >> > As someone else keeps asking about, THIS IS LANGUAGE CHANGE.
> >>
> >> Of course it's change. Linguistic inflation is change, but not change
> >> for the better.
> >
> > Change is change. It does not have moral implications.
> >
> > What do you think "linguistic inflation" refers to?
> >
> > In linguistics, it means things like Brits using "brilliant" to mean 'good'.
> > Do you find something like that here?
> >
> > (The standard example is "awesome." Another is "queen.")
> Have you come across "based" ?
>
> Is there a word for the phenomenon where language change involves
> blurring and a word comes to mean anything and its opposite (in context)

I don't know a word. Enantiodromia? "Bad" has meant "good" among
African Americans since at least 1897 (OED), and more recently "sick",
"dirty", etc., have been used to mean "good".

And of course, insults can be friendly. "Joe, you old son of a bitch!
How've you been?"

--
Jerry Friedman

On Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 11:25:44 AM UTC-5, Madhu wrote:
> * "Peter T. Daniels" <69bf9950-8fe7-463f...@googlegroups.com> :
> Wrote on Wed, 18 Jan 2023 07:17:13 -0800 (PST):
> > On Tuesday, January 17, 2023 at 11:43:39 PM UTC-5, Madhu wrote:
> >> * "Peter T. Daniels" <2b968e59-51bd-4c8b-967e-dd31dc02ef07n
> >> @googlegroups.com> :
> >> Wrote on Sat, 14 Jan 2023 08:06:59 -0800 (PST):

> >> > What do you think "linguistic inflation" refers to?
> >> > In linguistics, it means things like Brits using "brilliant" to
> >> > mean 'good'.
> >> > Do you find something like that here?
> >> > (The standard example is "awesome." Another is "queen.")
> >> Have you come across "based" ?
>
> (I take that as no)

No idea what you were talking about. Maybe it was a typo.