{Truism}[5th May 1970]

[Redbook1:144-145][19700505:1815c]{Truism}[5th May 1970]

Tuesday 5th May 1970   6.15pm [continued]

            I've just looked up 'Truism' in the C[oncise].O[xford].D[ictionary]. as a check.  An example given is: “I don't like my tea too hot” = “I don't like my tea hotter than I like it” -- the second statement is obviously a truism, but the first?  How else would one say it?  If one said “I don't like my tea hot” one's host could be forgiven for cooling it (the tea) with ice. “ I don't like my tea very hot” -- well, “very” is a relative term and as far as drinking is concerned is almost as much a truism – “ I don't like my tea hotter than I usually drink tea” -- as well as being slightly more ambiguous because one cannot be certain what are the drinker’s heat-resistant qualities.  The mistake made by the C.O.D. is, I think, in assuming that “too hot” means “too hot for me (the drinker and speaker)” -- in fact it should usually be taken by the person spoken to to mean “too hot for most of us”; or in other words, “I don't like my tea too hot” should really be used to say “I don't like my tea hotter than it is generally liked” -- possibly a needless comment but not, I think, a truism.  However, we now come to a distinct warping of the meaning which one assumes the expression to have had originally: for someone who says in conversation, as the tea is being prepared or poured, “ I don't like my tea too hot” actually means (in most cases -- if he means anything at all*) “ I don't like my tea as hot as I have sometimes found it”, or in other words “ I like my tea rather less hot than it is generally or sometimes liked”. (The first stage) This is a definite message of importance and intends to carry a certain relative standard of measurement – the *C.O.D.’s definition of meaning has no intention of message and could possibly correspond to the second stage of the use of the expression by a person, when he says it purely from force of habit -- but a habit which grew out of the first stage.

            All of which is pretty pointless but quite fun.

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