Call a Spade a Spade

from Classical Phrase to Racial Slur: A Case Study

Wolfgang Mieder (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

251 Seiten

2002 | Annotated edition
Peter Lang Publishing Inc (Verlag)
978-0-8204-6176-2 (ISBN)

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This book is an attempt to trace the origin, history, dissemination, and meaning of the well-known proverbial expression «to call a spade a spade.» The first four chapters discuss the previous scholarship on this classical phrase turned proverb, trace its history from Aristophanes to Erasmus of Rotterdam, review the appearance of the expression in dictionaries of quotations, and analyze the inclusion of the phrase in proverb and idiom collections. The fifth chapter treats various meanings of the word «spade» – shovel, eunuch, playing card, and «black.» This is followed by four chapters dealing with the appearance of the phrase in literary texts from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, in scholarly writings, in the mass media, in advertisements, and in cartoons. A significant chapter shows how the innocuous proverbial phrase became a racial slur in the written media. The final chapter contains four demographic studies based on questionnaires to show the various interpretations of the «spade»-phrase among modern English speakers, including its unfortunate misuse as a stereotypical statement.

Reihe/Serie	International Folkloristics ; 2
Reihe/Serie	International Folkloristics ; 2
Zusatzinfo	ill.
Sprache	englisch
Maße	160 x 230 mm
Gewicht	360 g
Themenwelt	Schulbuch / Wörterbuch ► Wörterbuch / Fremdsprachen
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Sprachwissenschaft
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	0-8204-6176-8 / 0820461768
ISBN-13	978-0-8204-6176-2 / 9780820461762
Zustand	Neuware