[extropy-chat] evolution of language

[Damien Broderick]

At 09:23 AM 6/16/2005 -0700, Mike Lorrey wrote:

>Given the bad=good evolution came out of the african american
>community, I would posit that one should look to europeans who have
>endured centuries of servitude, slavery, etc. i.e. anything that is
>'bad' for the master is considered 'good' for the slave, and vice versa...

Maybe to some extent, but there is a very large number of words in common 
usage that mean the opposite of their original coinage but don't seem 
amenable to that explanation. "Sophisticated" to mean knowing and classy is 
the reverse of the earlier sense of fake and tawdry. But then one could get 
into a complicated discussion about sophistry and Sophists and how the 
former is a calumny against the latter. Perhaps Greek slave teachers of 
philosophy in the Roman era are one source of this confusion, but I don't 
think it's as simple as Mike's model suggests.

Damien Broderick