RE: Wanna see racism and anti gay bigotry combined?
November 3, 2016 at 2:20 pm
(This post was last modified: November 3, 2016 at 2:25 pm by Edwardo Piet.)
Well Carlin is right that the user and intention and context is most important but we shouldn't ignore connotations completely. Connotations have meanings too. "overweight" has a different connotative meaning to "fat".
I can honesty say to a highly obese friend that they're not fat without lying because "fat" includes a negative connotation which I would be lying about if I said it. They're highly overweight to an unhealthy degree but they're not fat, a fatty or a fatso. If you call someone "fat" it kind of also implies the negative connotation and so means "fat in an insulting way", if I said that to an overweight friend I'd be lying because I don't mean it in an insulting way.
If there's an understanding between friends that it's not meant in a bad way and it's just a joke and they all laugh together then it would no longer be a lie because the connotation would change from the standard "in an insulting way" to a more personal definition of "in a way that's a harmless joke between us as friends."
I can honesty say to a highly obese friend that they're not fat without lying because "fat" includes a negative connotation which I would be lying about if I said it. They're highly overweight to an unhealthy degree but they're not fat, a fatty or a fatso. If you call someone "fat" it kind of also implies the negative connotation and so means "fat in an insulting way", if I said that to an overweight friend I'd be lying because I don't mean it in an insulting way.
If there's an understanding between friends that it's not meant in a bad way and it's just a joke and they all laugh together then it would no longer be a lie because the connotation would change from the standard "in an insulting way" to a more personal definition of "in a way that's a harmless joke between us as friends."
