Red words, blue words
A recent Word on the Colbert Report had Stephen engaging in a little bit of lexicography again. This time, he tackled the word shall, which featured in a confrontation between two senators (George Allen of macaca fame and Richard Durbin) regarding how the former’s adaptation of the latter’s bill used shall, rather than will. The video is online, but here’s a preview:
Did you know there are also red words and blue words. “Shall” is red. It’s strong, and authoritarian, like the Republicans. [...] “Shall” embodies traditional Republican values, like stick-to-it-iveness and telling other people how to live. [...] Shall is godly, as in thou shalt not kill. If God were a Democrat [...] He would have said, “thou will not kill,” meaning, “you shouldn’t kill, so you had a bad childhood, so it’s society’s fault. [...] Think of all the time you hear “Democrats” and “will” in the same sentence. We will cut and run.”
Note the linguification at the end (which actually mistakes an co-occurrence of the words “democrat” and “will” in a single sentence with an instance of a Democrat actually using the word “will”.)
And for some related shall/will funnery, there’s this earlier post.