White lies, polite lies [ Reading & Writing / Communication ]
… Abstract ‘I wish that word fib was banished from the English language, and white lie drummed out after it,’ exclaim s Miss Clarendon, a scrupulously honest character in Maria … Subjects, ed. Roy J. Defferrari (Catholic University Press, 1952), ch. 2, p. 54, 86. In his Dictionary of the English Language (1755), Samuel Johnson defined the ‘lie’ variously as either a ‘criminal falsehood’, a ‘charge of falsehood’ or … asserts the ‘corporeal component’ of the code of politeness: ‘its rules not only impose the wittiest possible use of language but also demand firm control of the polite person’s creatureliness’ (113). The body may serve as an indicator of …
Conversation | Falsehood | Lies | Politeness
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