4 ms·
A phrase like “houseless residents” is used to convey two unrelated levels of information: The first level of information is the obvious one: an adjective phra
by teakettle42 4y ago
A phrase like “houseless residents” is used to convey two unrelated levels of information:
The first level of information is the obvious one: an adjective phrase that describes a homeless person.
The second level of information is about the writer: it conveys the writer’s support for a political position, and an ideological in-group to which the writer claims membership.
The “scare quotes” here are used to convey that the author does not subscribe to the underlying political position that the phrase communicates; rather, they’re quoting someone else’s usage.
This is correct.
- finfinfin 4y agoCould it also indicate the usage of a new phrase in place of an established word “homeless”? Like if I used the term “apartmentless city dweller” I would probably put in quotes.
- whimsicalism 4y agoNo they're putting it in quotes to make fun of it. It's like a "those stupid libs" signal but classier.
- woojoo666 4y agoWorth noting that "houseless" is not in quotes in the article, so may just be something that OP is emphasizing
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- WalterGR 4y ago> The “scare quotes” here are used to convey that the author does not subscribe to the underlying political position that the phrase communicates; rather, they’re quoting someone else’s usage. This is correct. No, it's not. Submitting the original article titles on HN is not making a political statement, it's the rules. Since it's the rules, it's not necessary to add one's own scare quotes - in fact that's the editorializing the rules tell you not to do: "Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html In this case, the original title is "Tires Slashed, Mirrors Shattered Along Laurelhurst Street Where Tensions Between Neighbors and Houseless Residents Continue to Escalate" That exceeds the maximum limit on HN, but can be trimmed without the scare-quotes editorialization. (In fact, the scare quotes take away 2 characters that could otherwise be well-utilized.)
- teakettle42 4y agoThe “scare” quotes make it clear that the phrasing is quoted from the original title, which, given the necessity of summarizing the title to fit within the limits, is still, in fact, entirely correct.