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Most non-language geeks, and even some English professors use the word "inflection" to mean intonation: "There was something about his inflection that troubled me." I absolutely hate when people do this, but I'm willing to be convinced that these people are not stupid, if there is an argument in favor of this. Anyone have thoughts?

...these people are not stupid, because that's what "inflexion" means. That is what the word means.

The fact that there's a tiny niche subculture of linguists who also use the same word to mean something entirely different does not make all other English-speakers 'stupid'. Or do you think you're stupid for thinking that 'place of articulation' is somewhere in the mouth, rather than the point where the cab and trailer are joined in an articulated lorry? If so, we can probably find lots of ways you're stupid. Do you think that an intention is a plan that somebody has? Wrong, it's the semantic import of a word! Or possibly it's the quality that words have of being about things. An extension is a prolonging in time? Wrong, it's the possession of spatial dimensionality! Or else it's the sum of all things referenced by a term... a substance is a material? Wrong, it's that of which predicates are predicated - wait, did you think a predicate was something linguistic? No, a predicate is that that may be ascribed to a substance. And an accident is a predicate that a particular substance may fail to possess without failing to be that particular substance...

Thing is, words have many meanings, particularly when you include niche jargon uses. You refusing to use a word in one (and the most common, and indeed most etymologically intuitive) way does not make normal language-users stupid...

I have seen it several times and was always perplexed. But it appears it is not a new variation.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=inflection&allowed_in_frame=0 wrote: inflection (n.) Look up inflection at Dictionary.com
also inflexion, early 15c., from Middle French inflexion and directly from Latin inflexionem (nominative inflexio) "a bending, inflection, modification," noun of action from past participle stem of inflectere "to bend in, to change" (see inflect). For spelling, see connection. Grammatical sense "variation by declension or conjugation" is from 1660s; pronunciation sense "modulation of the voice" is from c. 1600.

Pole, the wrote:I have seen it several times and was always perplexed. But it appears it is not a new variation.

Not only is it not new, it's the meaning that I, as I native speaker, learned first. As Sal says, the linguistic usage is a term of art.

That etymology itself shows that the pronunciation meaning is about 60 years older than the technical linguistic meaning.

Just as your boss at work is not someone you must kill in order to leave the area.

At least people don't use "grammar" when they mean "orthography".

Oh wait.

OHGODNONONONONONOOOOOO

clawgrip wrote:Just as your boss at work is not someone you must kill in order to leave the area.

Speak for yourself.

"Linguist" is a similar case. We all have heard of this "So you are a linguist. How many languages do you speak? Twenty?" thing. The point is that long before linguist came to mean 'scholar of linguistics', it used to mean, and still means, 'master of many tongues'.