Re: language

[Guest guest]

Could anyone please define the word " respect " ?

When a lawyer says " with respect to the paper... " , what is the connotation?

When someone says that you cannot get respect until you earn it, what

connotation of respect are they speaking of?

What is the difference between " respectively " , and " respectfully " , as far as

connotation?

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I'm answering each of these by first explaining off the top of my head the

meaning and implication of the words and then looking them up and listing

the American Heritage Dictionary definition for the term. So first you are

getting the colloquial explanation and then one " official " explanation. (I

use the American Heritage Dictionary because it is usually short and to the

point. I have several other dictionaries available, including the Oxford

English Dictionary, if you're interested in what other dictionaries say

about these words.)

At 01:05 AM 12/17/02 -0500, wrote:

>Could anyone please define the word " respect " ?

>

>When a lawyer says " with respect to the paper... " , what is the connotation?

" in reference to the paper "

(To relate or refer to; concern.)

>When someone says that you cannot get respect until you earn it, what

connotation of respect are they speaking of?

that form of respect means something more like you cannot get people to

listen to what you say, treat you as an equal, consider you worthy until

you earn it.

(To feel or show deferential regard for; esteem.)

>What is the difference between " respectively " , and " respectfully " , as far

as connotation?

respectively means correlatively. For example, a logic problem might say

" there are a man a woman and a child, dressed in red, blue and green,

though not necessarily respectively " and that means that you are not to

assume that the man is wearing red, the woman is wearing blue and the child

is wearing green.

(Singly in the order designated or mentioned)

respectfully means full of the second kind of respect that you asked about.

If I sign a letter respectfully, it insinuates that I hold you in esteem,

find you worthy, am willing to listen to what you say and view you as an

equal (or better) to me.

(Showing or marked by proper respect.)

[Guest guest]

- nice to see you here. :-)

sandi

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[Guest guest]

Re: language

- nice to see you here. :-)

sandi

Thank you, Sandi. As always, I am still searching for answers

(or should I correct that, and say plausible explanations?) for

all the circumstances that life presents to me as an person

with Asperger's Syndrome.

Are there degrees of interest in the various " elements " of life,

or does one have to have either full interest or no interest?

For example, why, in our society, is it inappropriate to speak

about sewage, when we all (as adults) know about it? Is society

telling us that we can have no interest in it whatsoever, and that

we must revert our attention to something else " more interesting " ?

The same question could be raised about suicide. Why is it deemed

disrespectful of others to discuss suicide? I do not mean the " plans "

that someone who is depressed might have in mind; but rather the

broader implications of why suicide is not condoned in our western

(and many other) societies, but not all cultures.

These issues will not just " go away " ... they are there every minute of

my life, and when others frown at me for raising such issues, and try

their hardest to " change the subject " , I feel as though the message is

clear: that they (the others before me) are " right " , and that I, as an Aspie

am " wrong " . Has this whole issue of semantics been camoflaged with

moralism--where the discussion of morals, themselves, is strickly forbidden,

dispite all the pornography, domestic abuse, and drug culture that we live

in (at least in North America)?

[Guest guest]

wrote:

>Are there degrees of interest in the various " elements " of life,

>or does one have to have either full interest or no interest?

>For example, why, in our society, is it inappropriate to speak

>about sewage, when we all (as adults) know about it? Is society

>telling us that we can have no interest in it whatsoever, and that

>we must revert our attention to something else " more interesting " ?

In what circumstances do you get told it is inappropriate to

talk about sewage? Is it any mention at all of sewage that

is deemed inappropriate? Or are you seen (as many Aspies are

at times, including me) as " taking over the conversation " or

" delivering a monologue " ?

I ask those questions for two reasons. One: I've never (that

I noticed, anyway) had a bad reaction to mentioning sewage.

But maybe I just didn't notice. and Two: I wonder if it is

the same sort of thing as nipples. I have been told now and

then that I was dressed inappropriately because it was

possible for people to see my nipples. Now, in all cases my

chest was entirely covered by a shirt, so it was not true

that anyone could " see " the nipples. What they meant (I

finally figured out) was that my clothing did not entirely

disguise the fact that I, like almost every other human on the

planet, have nipples on my chest underneath my clothing. I

cannot understand why it is considered necessary to pretend

that we do not have the body parts we have. And nipples

(especially when covered!) seem particularly inoccuous.

As for suicide, I got rebuked very sternly once for bringing

a story in which the plot included a suicide to a writing

" support " group where one of the members was the mother of

a child who had committed suicide years before. I had no

idea that she'd had a child who committed suicide, but even

so.... Is everyone supposed to pretend it doesn't exist?

Does that really make her feel better, or stop her from

feeling as bad? Difficult to understand.

Jane