Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 20:14:21 -0400 (EDT)
From: Connie Tchir <ctchir-AT-chass.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Re: gossip


Hi, Nazreena,

I am assuming then that the Sinhalese term is equivalent - these little
points of discourse are interesting to me - they show the ingrained
character of our assessments of certain acts.  Logically, I would have
expected as violent terms for abuse, but instead we see a whole list of
euphemisms destined to minimize the traumatic aspect of the act - a man's
character is "assassinated" - an unmistakably violent term, not really
associated with anything less than the loss of human life.  A woman's
reputation is "sullied" or "dirtied" or "dragged through the mud" or
simply "bad."  A woman is "violated" [as are rights, laws, property
lines], "raped" [as are fields,lands, cultures] - sometimes it seems to me 
that crimes predominantly committed against women go from the concrete to
the abstract in terminology, whereas crimes that effect men go from the
abstract to the concrete.  Why do crimes primarily done to women/children
get difused into the abstract?  I tried to think of crimes dones primarily
to men, seem to be drawing a blank...anyway, was a side-tracked thought.  

I thank-you all for your interesting comments on "gossip" in general and
in particular - I love reading the posts on this list, and of course, the
poetry that supplies imagery and life to the explanations!  Connie

On Mon, 14 Oct 1996, Imran Markar wrote:

> Hi Connie!
> 
> Referring to your query about the term "assassinate", in fact when the Sri
> Lankan President delivered his message to the people, he did so not
> in English but in Sinhalese (the native language of a majority of Sri
> Lankans), and the corresponding Sinhalese term he used was
> "ghathanaya".  
> 
> Nazreena
>