Daddy's Home

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by mathman, Dec 8, 2018.

  1. mathman Valued Senior Member

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    The above is the title of a movie from 2016. What does it mean , daddy is home, or daddy owns the home?
     
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  3. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Without context, it could mean either.

    The apostrophe could be part of the contraction, or to show the possessive.

    The intent, in the context of the movie, is: Daddy is home. Because that's a saying.
     
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  5. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    It could be deliberately ambiguous. Movie titles often have deliberate multiple meanings.
     
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  7. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    The first statement: "Daddy has returned to his place of residence." can be colloquially expressed as the announcement: "Daddy's home!".
    The second is not a sentence at all. It could be used as a label on an abode, but not as information in the absence of a physical property.
     
  8. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    But it doesn't have to be a sentence to be a movie title.
     
  9. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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  10. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    True. Nor does a movie title have to be meaningful. Jumanji.
     
  11. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Jumanji is meaningful. It's a proper name - the name of the game. The fact that it is only in the fiction of the story is not something I would say disqualifies it as being meaningful.

    Now, it a movies were called fnordstrom, but there were no fnordstrom in the story, that would be meaningless.
     
  12. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    Here is a panda! He eats, shoots and leaves.
     
  13. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    Not as a stand-alone statement; only once you're watching the movie.
    The title itself makes less sense than "Daddy's Home" - in either interpretation - which also comes clear when you see the movie.
    As a movie title doesn't have to be a sentence, or be clear as to its meaning, nor does it have to be a real word.
    It's a name. Names have no grammatical strictures.
     
  14. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Not so sure. For example, Billy Joel wrote a song titled Summer, Highland Falls. But there's nothing in the song about summer or highlands or waterfalls. None of the title words appear anywhere in the lyrics. Nevertheless, it's not meaningless.

    Similarly, Bob Dylan wrote a song called Rainy Day Women #12 & 35. And guess what?
     
  15. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    But you just said the title is not meaningless, so ... it's not meaningless.

    That isn't the logical inverse of what I said:

    "If a movie were called fnordstrom, but there were no fnordstrom in the story, that would be meaningless."
     
  16. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    To drag nitpickery mode into the realm of nauseum, he wasn't attempting to invert your statement; merely to show that it was not necessarily true. Fnordstorm might be meaningful, even if no such thing were featured in the movie. It might have a encrypted meaning, or a personal one; it might be allegorical, mystical, homeopathic, or have an association that isn't obvious at first glance.
    Point being: a work of art can be called whatever its creator wants to call it, and that's meaning enough for a title.
     
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  17. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    "Fnordstrom. James Fnordstrom."

    (And Miss Moneypenny would be played, coincidentally, by Samantha Fnsordstrom.)
     
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  18. RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

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    http://www.sciforums.com/threads/misogyny.161609

    "daddy is home" is an American language term
    it means several things but is interpreted to mean
    the power authority is now in control

    it is innately misogynistic as a form of power & control authority culture of the domestic family unit.

    it has been sexualised by many people to become a sexual domination expression.

    some people use it in a manner that they feel is not misogynistic but like a white male calling his best friend out loud in public a N_gger"
    picture standing in the middle of a busy family fast food shop
    and a young white male says loudly as a hello gesture to his young white male friend who walks in
    "Hey My N_GGER!" !
    so all the customers can hear him.

    the expression "Daddy is home" is the same
     
  19. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    And "Mommy's home" means - what? Is it inherently bigoted as well? Misandryist? Sexualized? Just like "nigger?"
     
  20. candy Valued Senior Member

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    I assume it is related to the threat "Wait till your father gets home" when discipline will be meted out.
     
  21. RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

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    "daddys home" is also used as a sexual statement of impending sexual activity or intent.

    picture several women at home chatting, and in walks a really ripped hot guy who has arrived to fix something in the apartment and one of the women says to the others "daddys home"! (meaning he is really sexually attractive)

    the term is also used in situations of revenge or displays of power and control.

    the term is extremely changeable depending on the surroundings/environment.

    it can be promising & exciting
    or
    it can be menacing and threatening

    American 50s & 60s culture delivered the term to the female child having her father come home as a form of liberty & power
    equally the male child as ability to engage in exciting activity or be rewarded with presents in the consumer culture.

    environmental & context circumstances change the expression completely into something quite different
     
  22. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    Sounds like a Nordic God to me. Some kind of divine warrior who has control over the weather. I can visualize the horned helmet and the bearskin robe, long hair and beard whisping in the storm which always accompanies him on his mystical adventures. The ground shudders where he walks.
    Wherever he is; "Daddy's home!".............................

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  23. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    Of course, for the phrase "Daddy's home", one can posit a benign interpretation:
    You're safe now; your protector has returned.
    It would have a quite poignant meaning for children whose father is away at war or on an expedition or working abroad.
    That's quite different from the threat "Wait till your father gets home!"
    Men - even patriarchs in the old-world sense - serve more than one function in a family.
     

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