Trying it the regular way?

We are out of milk here at the museum, so I am having to have my coffee black. Does that count as "regular" coffee? I am not sure actually what would be the unmarked form of coffee, but since this has a noun plus adjective describer (black coffee) that would linguistically mean it is not the unmarked category. Neither though is "coffee with cream." Or "coffee with sweetener," right? Maybe only the one word Italian drinks count as unmarked -- latte, cappuccino, espresso? Of course, in the States, regular coffee is drip coffee, ie: absolutely not any form of espresso drink. Once I can figure out what really counts as "regular coffee", I'll be happy to give it a try.

Comments

Iris said…
Very interesting thought process! I guess there is no unmarked version of coffee then. However, if I would ask someone "coffee?" I would mean the black variety and then I would ask again once I'm done with the preparation. Maybe someone should write an article about this!
September 18, 2009 at 2:41 PM
Lissy said…
Yes, it is dangerous what a few undergraduate linguistic courses can do to a person's long term thought process.
September 18, 2009 at 3:18 PM
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