Posted by Peter H on May 11, 2003 at 20:01:33 from 81.131.227.63 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: A Difficult Question! posted by Ed Kiser on May 10, 2003 at 21:43:05:
Ed - I’m afraid I started the ‘redneck’ business off, by asking what it meant. A few words would have sufficed, but I got some lengthy put-downs of a type of folk in the US who hold some unfashionable beliefs. I don’t think there is any exact equivalent in the UK, but occasionally we get outbreaks of ‘Irish’ jokes, ie jokes which depend for their effect on portraying Irish people as dim, rather like ‘rednecks’. The jokes can be funny, but there is an unpleasant subtext. Maybe every nation needs a group of ‘fall-guys’, but it is a habit I wish we could all grow out of.
Getting hastily back on-topic, Ed should not worry too much about not understanding some of the Ransome usages of English. Some of them baffle us over here. Take this statement by Nancy in PM Ch IX when she is praising Dick for his handling of Amazon: ‘You don’t manage her half badly’. That sentence defies analysis. Logically, Nancy is saying that Dick does not just half manage her badly, he completely manages her badly. But that’s not what she means. The modern usage would be something like ‘You don’t half manage her well’, ie you completely manage her well. Nancy’s remark may be a 1920s usage, but it seems strange to me. Does Ed K have any problems with it?
A postscript on Jacky. There was a recent discussion as to whether he was a hard-worked farm lad. I’ve just been reminded that the whole of PM Ch XI is devoted to his visit to the Dog’s Home, and the illustration in that Chapter is captioned ‘NOT LOOKING AT ALL LIKE GOING’. He can’t have been all that hard-worked!