Last week's misunderstanding was of a different sort. ''Niggardly''
may be unexceptionable on etymological grounds, but given what we know about
how the mind deals with language, the word was a disaster waiting to happen.
Most words and parts of words have many meanings, and when we listen to
someone speak, our brains have to find the right ones. Some recent
laboratory experiments indicate that this is a two-stage process.
First, all the meanings of a word, including inappropriate ones, light up
willy-nilly in the brain. When we hear about ''spiders, roaches and bugs,''
the thought of surveillance devices flashes through our minds for a few
hundredths of a second -- until that misinterpretation is repressed by our
analysis of the context.
Thus it is impossible for anyone to hear ''niggardly'' without thinking,
if only for a moment, of the ethnic slur.
Worse, the context is of little help in squelching the wrong meaning.
Everyone is an amateur linguist, and we all strive for a logical -- though
sometimes incorrect -- parsing of what we hear. This is why folk etymologies
are rampant in dialects, like ''sparrowgrass'' (asparagus) and
''very-close'' (varicose) veins.
Many phrases have become standard English, like chaise lounge (from the
French chaise longue or ''long chair''), cockroach (from the Spanish
cucaracha) and bridegroom (originally bridgome, Middle English for ''bride
man'').
''Niggardly'' is easy to mis-parse. English grammar allows a ''d'' or
''ed'' to be stuck on a noun to form an adjective (as in ''hook-nosed'' and
''left-handed''), and it allows ''ly'' to be put on an adjective to form an
adverb.
Thus we get ''absent-mindedly,'' ''good-humoredly,'' ''half-heartedly,''
''markedly,'' ''otherworldly,'' ''pointedly,'' ''shame-facedly'' and
''single-handedly.''
The ''a'' is not much help, because ''ar'' often substitutes for ''er''
-- as in ''beggar,'' ''burglar,'' ''hangar'' and ''scholar.''
Worst of all, the deducible meaning makes all-too-good linguistic sense.
Terms for stinginess and duplicitousness are among the most common examples
of racist language: ''to gyp'' (probably from gypsy), ''to welsh'' (perhaps
from Welsh), ''Dutch treat,'' ''Indian giver.''
Does this mean a perfectly innocent word is doomed? It would not be the
first time. Words are often sacrificed when they take on secondary,
emotionally charged meanings. ''Queer,'' for example is now problematic, and
many animals (like donkeys) are losing their fine old Anglo-Saxon names.
If you find yourself vaguely offended thinking of the other words I could
have included here, you should have some sympathy for David Howard's
audience.
Still, Mr. Howard should get his job back. Though ''niggardly'' begs to
be misunderstood, the misunderstanding can be overruled. After the various
associates of a word light up in the mental dictionary, the rest of the
brain can squelch the unintended ones, thanks to the activity that
psycholinguists call ''post-lexical-access processing'' and that other
people call ''common sense.''
