The Language Of Intoxication

At one level this seems obvious, but it's significant that researchers are taking the linguistic dimension of socially-related research seriously. In this case recognising that in asking about attitudes and behaviour around alcohol there are a lot of terms used colloquially for being under the influence and (natuarally) they tend to differentiate into different degrees of intoxication and -significantly- usage by gender may be misleading because there is an ideological dimension (looks a bit like 'gentlemen perspire, ladies glow', to me). The Language Of Intoxication: The Term 'Drunk' Doesn't Really Cut It Any More Here's the rub: "'Their use of 'tipsy' reflected an average of four drinks over two hours, which actually meets binge-drinking criteria for women but not men,' he said. 'Therefore, women could be binge drinking while psychologically perceiving their level of intoxication as being 'tipsy' or relatively benign, as opposed to heavier levels of intoxication that would be described with less euphemistic terms, such as 'hammered' or 'wasted.' Such a perception could potentially mislead women, for example, to feel as though they are capable of driving after drinking because they are 'only tipsy.''"
My interest, is back to the 'giving names to the animals thing', again. The way that naming still goes on, the dividing of experience into significan chunks and the influence of ideology and culture on the way that naming and paradigmatic relations pan out.