Was the lack of "mother" intentional?

Bruton the Iguanodon · **on:** December 22, 2011, 04:52:02 PM

Quote

"They play a brief game of "don't step on the crack, hence the reason behind why I still play it today. It's a god thing she didn't say mother, otherwise I have a feeling Littlefoot would have gone off crying his eyes out or something..."

- The Lizard Man

Just wondering, was the lack of "mother" intentional or are there otherways to play this universal game? I googled it and that's mainly what I got, I think...but still Littlefoot didn't even really mention his mother to Ducky

jansenov · **Reply #1 on:** December 22, 2011, 08:52:11 PM

It was intentional. To avoid offending Littlefoot. Proverbs are notoriously resilient parts of language (in fact, they can even outlive their source languages or cultures, like Latin proverbs), so it is unlikely that is there is proverb in English with a different meaning that can be applied to the same situation. The fact that you as a native speaker haven't heard of a different proverb supports this. Sometimes, a proverb can be so old that its original meaning is forgotten and it no longer makes sense, and then people attemp to re-interpret it.

You can also think of Ducky's "...or you'll fall and break your back" as her re-interpretation of the old and, to contemporary speakers of English (and to Ducky), meaningless "...or you'll break your mother's back".

And have do you know they didn't talk about his mother? The movie leaves out a lot of things. Mumbling already pointed this out ot you.

Bruton the Iguanodon · **Reply #2 on:** December 22, 2011, 08:55:58 PM

Great. Movie 1 really was overly depressing, if they had to tread carefully around something as simple as an innocent game

Bruton the Iguanodon · **Reply #3 on:** March 04, 2012, 04:01:13 AM

What if that is the saying in the LBT world? Or maybe there's a different verison of the game? I doubt she was even thinking about his mom being dead right then...

I think if it was an a "aversion" they would have her stop short of saying "mother" ad then say "your"

Zenoah · **Reply #4 on:** March 06, 2012, 01:57:54 AM

I never noticed this to be honest...and I've watched the film so many times.

Bruton the Iguanodon · **Reply #5 on:** March 21, 2012, 12:40:35 AM

Well, I tend to overwatch stuff.

By the way, I like your choice of Avatar. Planning on seeing Ice Age 4 this summer?

Zenoah · **Reply #6 on:** March 23, 2012, 01:52:56 AM

Yup! Im super excited to see Shira.

Was the lack of "mother" intentional?

Bruton the Iguanodon

Bruton the Iguanodon

Bruton the Iguanodon

Bruton the Iguanodon