I keep seeing it lately, and I don’t know why. (I do know that one time was purportedly a mistake, so I’ll just assume that’s the case ) but seriously. When did “imply” and “infer” get so difficult to keep straight?
If I suggest something indirectly, I imply it.
If you pick up on that suggestion, you infer it.
Me: “It would do wonders for some people’s wardrobes if they learned to leave the ponchos at home.”
Poncho Wearing Person: “Are you implying that this doesn’t look good on me?”
Poncho Wearing Person’s response is correct: if your initial comment was directed towards them, then you were, in fact, implying that the poncho doesn’t look good on them.
Your response is only partly correct: PWP is indeed making that inference, but that doesn’t exclude you having made the implication. In other words, you implied that it looked bad, and PWP inferred your meaning. A correct final response would have been:
Me: “Yes, you’ve correctly inferred my implication.”
I was suspended in high school for a virtually identical conversation. I had been counting the number of times our teacher (ironically the English Master) said “umm” or “errr” and updating the class with the score. He caught me and asked what I was doing.
Me: “Counting how often you say ‘ummm’ or ‘errrr’, sir.”
Teacher: “Are you inferring that I am an idiot?”
Me: “No sir, I am implying that. Only you can infer it.”
Teacher: “Get out of my classroom and go to the office.”
[FONT=Arial]You folks are treading on dangerous ground here claiming that words have specific meanings and to use them otherwise would be wrong. Just sayin’.
Actually you could have been inferring that he was an idiot from the number of times he said “umm” or “errr”.
He could infer from your answer that you weren’t paying attention, and the inevitable implication is that you did indeed deserve to be sent out.
Lesson 3: ‘Hijack’
An apparently contradictory oxymoron is a tautology.
However a repetitive tautology is not an oxymoron.
Sort of a long story but I swear I have a relevant point: I founded a Toastmasters club at my company, and among the roles at every meeting are a grammarian and a Toastmaster-of-the-Day (TOTD). The grammarian comments on the various speakers’ and other participants’ grammar, and is also tasked with providing a word-of-the-day for the meeting, which the TOTD puts on the meeting agenda and the meeting’s impromptu speakers are encouraged to use. Whenever someone is scheduled to be TOTD for the first time, I ask them to send me the agenda two hours before the meeting so that I can look it over and make sure all of the meeting elements are on it.
(Here comes my point–finally!)
Before last Thursday’s meeting I received the agenda from the TOTD, and the word-of-the-day was “irregardless.” When my eye stopped twitching I composed a two-paragraph e-mail expounding on the evils of “irregardless,” and explained that the grammarian would have to provide a new word of the day. The TOTD replied, “well, he picked that word on purpose as a sort of anti-word-of-the-day, and he plans to explain why it shouldn’t be used.”
:smack:
I felt a little silly about my rant, but my faith in that meeting’s grammarian was restored.
) but seriously. When did “imply” and “infer” get so difficult to keep straight?
