Malapropisms Everywhere

This blog examines practice Multi-State Bar Exam questions and hopefully helps prospective takers learn to spot various devices used that can so easily throw anyone off balance in their 1.8 minute race to the next question.

“I think we agree, the past is over.”

“Justice ought to be fair.”

Two very memorable quotes from former President Georgia W. Bush on different occasions. These are examples of some of his more innocuous ones, in the course of a presidency notorious for his malapropisms.

Then there’s Sarah Palin, Joe Biden and Dan Quayle; and the list goes on.

Of course everyone makes the occasional language gaffe, or uses a term out of context from that to which the listeners are accustomed. In earlier postings, I’ve pointed out the fact that language really is as individual as each of us, and it’s a constant challenge to ensure there’s enough overlap among our languages that we can effectively communicate.

I was working in a newspaper newsroom in 2008-9 when the Tea Party movement burst into the headlines. Mostly, the editors noticed that movement’s eruption because they initially called themselves “Teabaggers.” 

They had apparently always intended to leverage reference to the Boston Tea Party to characterize their populist revolt against tax and spending, one of their signature issues, but alternative possible meanings seemed to have escaped their notice.

But to many segments of society, the term “teabagger” referenced an entirely different activity, that had nothing to do with a tax protest.

It was a prime example of how even “common language” can differ in meaning among different groups and in different contexts.

These days, it is even difficult to find a reference to that time, unless one happens to have been a member of the movement, or like myself, in the news media watching it unfold. After awareness of that gaffe surfaced: then zap! Rewind, revise and reinvent! I give the organizers credit, because in short order they had orchestrated one of the most effective media blitzes that all but eradicated that early gaffe.

I ran across an MBE practice question that reminded me of the “teabagger” affair. It even brought to mind one of Dan Quayle’s more memorable occasions: “Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.” Ahem. (Well, I have lived in San Francisco!)

Here it is:

During a gang shootout in a city, a gangbanger looked for a rival among the combatants because he wanted to kill him. Believing a bystander to be the rival, the gangbanger shot at the bystander and missed. The bullet passed through a window and killed a homeowner who was asleep on her sofa.

[I hope everyone sees the “gangbanger” is guilty of attempted murder and murder.]

Maybe it’s my sordid past, and my sordid past  in journalism as well, or maybe I’ve just seen too many Jodie Foster movies, but I just immediately thought the crime of rape was also going to be on the . . . er . . . pinball machine, so to speak.

But nope.

I consulted a long-time police officer friend of mine: he said “gangbanger” is commonly accepted in law enforcement circles as being synonymous with “gang member.” (I was a bit nonplused that after a decades-long career in news media, that I had somehow missed that.)

Urban Dictionary

[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gangbanger]

and even Merrium Webster online

[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gangbanger]

both concur with that.

Still, I think the editors here should have heard alarm bells go off and could have been a bit more thoughtful: I wasted 1.8 seconds looking for rape.

Substituting the less inflammatory, and less prurient, term “gang member” would not have affected the fact pattern and may have been just a tad more sensitive.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Disclaimer: The examples cited here are either from the National Conference of Bar Examiners or one of the private bar preparation providers, and are used here under the fair use safe harbor for nonprofit educational purposes outlined in 17 USC §107. BE ADVISED these examples are, perforce, outdated and are used only as illustrations of methodology in form and language that may be encountered on the MBE, and further be advised that the state of current law may not be accurately reflected.