I decided I need to start documenting the use of "I could care less" to mean "I don't care" or more correctly "I could NOT care less."
See, if you could care less then there is a lower level of caring you could have. So whatever you're talking about isn't at the bottom of your list. There's something below it (actually or potentially). To steal a phrase..."I don't think that phrase means what you think it means."
I know that sounds INCONCEIVABLE! to some if you but it's true. Sure language evolves and meanings of words change. Semantics is ultimately more important (and more interesting) than syntax, but there's still a role for correct grammar, spelling, and pronunciation. If for no other reason than to not look like an idiot, particularly if you're in the writing business. In statistics and methodology we say that students need to learn fundamentals and the "right way" to do things so they can make intelligent trade offs when needed. Same principle apples here.
So why document this? I'm just fed up. For every violation of this (seemingly) simple turn of phrase, I want there to be documentation for posterity. Consider it constructive feedback. If one person reads this and then consciously corrects their urge to drop the "not" or "n't", I'll feel like I've helped the world :)
And our first offender is...
Ryan & Oestreich (1998) Driving Fear Out of the Workplace, 2nd edition (no less!), Jossey-Bass.
Page 138: "An 'I could care less' approach to the work"
I almost feel bad singling out these authors because I LOVE their book. Don't worry Kathleen and Daniel, there will be others :)
I'm on a mission...join me!
I always liked how the two phrases are treated identically. Normally, sarcasm is treated as some sort of hipster disease that must be stamped out for the greater good, but here it is in common usage.
ReplyDeleteAnd verily, when somebody says `Dude, I'm totally enthused', you have to stop for a second and ask yourself whether the person really is enthused or is so very unenthused that this is obvious sarcasm.
In the case here, however, there's no ambiguity between being able to care less and not being able to. Nobody ever makes statements about how my level of caring is pretty high right now, and I could conceive of states of the world where my level of caring is lower.
In fact, sarcasm is most correctly used when there's no ambiguity at all: a hipster would say that Celine Dion's musical composition skills are super-awesome because the falseness of the statement drives home how much this isn't the case. Our range of badness thus starts at `bad', then moves on to `worse', `terrible', and hits its most extreme at `epic'.
_Everybody_ uses sarcasm at some point, not just hipsters and bitter women in British melodramas. I like that we have at least this one codified form which everybody recognizes. When `I couldn't care less' just isn't emphatic enough, the standard form of sarcasm allows us a little more.