Two Notes on Language

1. I've been reading Pepys' Diary for some time now, and have noticed a few differences between his 17th century language and that of today. One of the more striking is the use of "in the room of" where today we would probably use "in (the) place of". Thinking about it, "in the room of" sounds odd in context, but that's largely because "room" still has its full semantic weight. In "in place of", "place" has largely been bleached of meaning; we don't think of a literal place when we use the phrase. If "in the room of" had survived instead, it's likely that the same bleaching would have taken place. ("Instead of" - "in (the) stead of" - is an example of the same process carried to its limit, aided by the fact that "stead", as an independent word, is pretty much extinct; it only survives here, in "steady", in "homestead", and in a few similar constructions. Compare also "in lieu of"; corresponding constructions exist in French, German, and Latin to my knowledge, and presumably in many others - it seems a fairly natural one.)

2. In my day, the standard serious or mock-serious threat of violence involved punching someone in the nose. I notice, though, that the neck seems to be the preferred target nowadays. (I don't think I've heard it spoken, but I've seen it in print a lot.) The Illusion of Recency may be at work, but I really don't recall that version from more than a few years ago. (Why the neck? It seems to me to be harder to hit, and less likely to cause satisfactory results, than the nose, unless you go for the throat - and "punch in the throat", which I've also encountered, is a much more serious threat.)