4 ms·

You do know what the definition of anthropomorphize is right? > attribute human characteristics or behavior to (a god, animal, or object). As far as I'm aware

by _gabe_ 4y ago

You do know what the definition of anthropomorphize is right? > attribute human characteristics or behavior to (a god, animal, or object). As far as I'm aware, baby humans don't start off as non-humans and magically transform into a human at some age where they understand more. So it seems fitting to attribute human characteristics to humans. That is not anthropomorphizing.

lisper 4y ago
Yes, I know. But I don't know of any word that means "attribute personhood to a non-person". Humans tend to conflate humanness and personhood.
- tremon 4y ago
  So because you couldn't find a single word to convey your meaning, you chose to shoehorn a semi-related word into the sentence in the hope that every reader would understand your tortured meaning? Why not use the more accurate multi-word construct? HN doesn't charge per word, last I checked.
  - lisper 4y ago
    You say "the more accurate multi-word construct" as if it were obvious that there is a single "accurate multi-word construct" that is already part of the English corpus that I could have employed here. If there is, I'm not aware of it, so I would have had to invent one. That would have taken considerable effort. Inventing new language constructs is not so easy, especially for subtle and emotionally fraught concepts like this. And yes, I thought people would figure out what I meant because I provided three references, which were the actual substance of my comment. I thought people might read at least some of those and figure out what I meant. Also, since you've decided to go all language-nazi on my ass, I looked up the dictionary definition of "anthropomorphize". There are two of them: 1. to attribute human form or personality to 2. to attribute human form or personality to things not human So it is absolutely possible to anthropomorphize a human baby, and all the people who have criticized me for using that word can go eff themselves. Democracy and human civilization are crumbling and the best thing you can find to do with your time is criticize my choice of vocabulary, and get it wrong to boot? Bah to that. Life is too short.
wruza 4y ago
If you ask someone to describe something generally anthropomorphic, the description would only tangentially fit a human newborn. “The weather is angry”, “trees strive to the light”, “this car is pretty demanding” are all examples of it. Not only newborns can’t express clearly what they strive to or angry of, they (likely or arguably, whichever) have no concepts of that in their minds, but we tend to attribute these to them either way. Idk if it’s commenters here are nitpicky or not, but I recognized the sense of gp’s terminology without a doubt.

by _gabe_ 4y ago

lisper 4y ago

Yes, I know. But I don't know of any word that means "attribute personhood to a non-person". Humans tend to conflate humanness and personhood.

tremon 4y ago
So because you couldn't find a single word to convey your meaning, you chose to shoehorn a semi-related word into the sentence in the hope that every reader would understand your tortured meaning? Why not use the more accurate multi-word construct? HN doesn't charge per word, last I checked.
- lisper 4y ago
  You say "the more accurate multi-word construct" as if it were obvious that there is a single "accurate multi-word construct" that is already part of the English corpus that I could have employed here. If there is, I'm not aware of it, so I would have had to invent one. That would have taken considerable effort. Inventing new language constructs is not so easy, especially for subtle and emotionally fraught concepts like this. And yes, I thought people would figure out what I meant because I provided three references, which were the actual substance of my comment. I thought people might read at least some of those and figure out what I meant. Also, since you've decided to go all language-nazi on my ass, I looked up the dictionary definition of "anthropomorphize". There are two of them: 1. to attribute human form or personality to 2. to attribute human form or personality to things not human So it is absolutely possible to anthropomorphize a human baby, and all the people who have criticized me for using that word can go eff themselves. Democracy and human civilization are crumbling and the best thing you can find to do with your time is criticize my choice of vocabulary, and get it wrong to boot? Bah to that. Life is too short.

wruza 4y ago

If you ask someone to describe something generally anthropomorphic, the description would only tangentially fit a human newborn. “The weather is angry”, “trees strive to the light”, “this car is pretty demanding” are all examples of it. Not only newborns can’t express clearly what they strive to or angry of, they (likely or arguably, whichever) have no concepts of that in their minds, but we tend to attribute these to them either way. Idk if it’s commenters here are nitpicky or not, but I recognized the sense of gp’s terminology without a doubt.