translatable pun
Oct. 9th, 2009 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gusl"Why are profile pictures almost always frontal?"
This pun works in at least 6 languages (EN, ES, HU, NL, PT, SE). Thanks, Facebook friends!
How much of a coincidence is this?
Does the wide extent of this double meaning reflect a universal metaphor, or merely the history of the word "profile" as it spread to all these languages?
I can imagine two ways in which two languages come to share two meanings of single word without new languages branching off (both involve language contact, i.e. bilinguals):
* both meanings cross to the new language (possibly independently)
* the second meaning is derived from the first by metaphor; the metaphor crosses to the new language.
This pun works in at least 6 languages (EN, ES, HU, NL, PT, SE). Thanks, Facebook friends!
How much of a coincidence is this?
Does the wide extent of this double meaning reflect a universal metaphor, or merely the history of the word "profile" as it spread to all these languages?
I can imagine two ways in which two languages come to share two meanings of single word without new languages branching off (both involve language contact, i.e. bilinguals):
* both meanings cross to the new language (possibly independently)
* the second meaning is derived from the first by metaphor; the metaphor crosses to the new language.