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Alan Hughes
Alan Hughes
4 years ago

I always learn something when I visit this site. Many thanks

Andrew Baldwin
Andrew Baldwin
4 years ago

I am glad to hear that Elizabeth’s husband is a francophile. Regarding the word “normative”, it actually comes from the French word “normatif”, and here I think the meaning is the same in both languages. Is there anything in people’s habitual routines that Elizabeth would like to see discarded as we go forward to normal? Graeme Archer has already given us his highly entertaining list. I would be interested in knowing hers.

T J Putnam
T J Putnam
4 years ago

Nice linguistic difference to point up, tho don’t forget that the French examples correctly contain normal in the sense of ‘usually’ as well as the sense of ‘proper’. There’s more to be explored here, the common sense of supposedly empiricist Britons is replete with normative content. As Boris&co are about to be found out, this common sense vaeies according to how it is embedded in different social situations and not all that manipulable by spin