09-11-2019, 02:19 PM
(09-11-2019, 01:45 PM)ijmorlan Wrote:(09-10-2019, 01:29 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: You folks and I have very different definitions of the word "jerk"...and I'm not sure the scare quotes make a difference to me (nor did the OPs use quotes)...
Coke6pk said more or less what I wanted to say, but I just wanted to say a bit more about jerk vs. “jerk”. I don’t mean that they literally used quotation marks. The idea is that in the following two sentences the word jerk is really being used in different ways with different meanings:
“Look at that jerk! They’ve been parked in the bike lane for the last hour!”
“Yeah, I’m a real jerk. I make my kids walk to school!”
In the first, I am expressing extreme disapproval of the person, and implying a strong chance that if I knew all the details I would consider the person morally deficient. In the second, I am acknowledging in a possibly humorous way that the kids might not appreciate it right now, but in no way am I acknowledging any wrongdoing.
The only way I read the second one is as sarcasm.