By the way, whenever we use expressions like “if you will” or “as it were” or “if you like” or “so to speak” or “for lack of a better expression” what we are really doing is giving ourselves license to make up a word or expression – or at least to use a made-up word or expression. It’s called verbal immunity. Take this example: “Packer fans are excited by Mike McCarthy’s willingness to use trickeration, if you will”. Now, you may have noticed that many broadcasters/friends/coworkers/family just go ahead and use words like “trickeration” and other made-up expressions without disclaiming them with an aforementioned verbal immunity expression. This is called verbal illegality, as it were.
December 11, 2007 at 3:18 pm |
[...] sure if Steve was trying to use trickeration or just pilferation, as they were. Either way, read Disclaimer [...]