2020-10-29
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด L - liable & libel & slander
การใช้ภาษาอังกฤษ ที่ถือว่า ถูกต้อง นี้ เป็นไป ตามมาตรฐาน ของภาษา
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ความหมาย อาจยืดหยุ่น ขึ้นอยู่กับ ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง liable = ‘LAHY-uh-buhl’
ออกเสียง libel = ‘LAHY-buhl’
ออกเสียง slander = ‘SLAN-der”
Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree
liable
responsible: He’s liable for the damage to her car.;
likely: She’s liable to bring a date.
Not to be confused with:
Libel – in law, defamation by written or printed words, pictures,
or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures;
anything that is defamatory or that maliciously or damagingly misrepresents
Dictionary.com
USAGE NOTE FOR LIABLE
Liable is often interchangeablewith likely
in constructions with a following infinitive
where the sense is that of probability:
The Sox are liable (or likely ) to sweep the Series.
Some usage guides, however, say that
liable can be used only in contexts
in which the outcome is undesirable:
The picnic is liable to be spoiled by rain.
This use occurs often in formal writing
but not to the exclusion of use in contexts
in which the outcome is desirable:
The drop in unemployment is liable to stimulate the economy.
Apt may also be used in place of liable or likely in all the foregoing examples. See also apt, likely.
Dictionary.com
“Libel” vs. “Slander”: How To Tell The Difference
If you spread a nasty rumor about your boss,
are you engaging in slander?
Can a politician sue a newspaper for libel if an article calls her a liar?
What do these two words mean, and are they interchangeable?
Since both are types of defamation
or “the act of making negative statements
that hurt another person’s reputation,” and alsoillegal,
you’ll want to make sure you know the difference.
Those who make defamatory statements
may find themselves facing civil or criminal suits in state courts.
In the United States,
defamation suits are limited by First Amendment
protections of free speech, but it’s still best to be careful.
First of all, what is a defamatory statement?
A defamatory statement is something
factually incorrect being presented as the truth.
A statement becomes defamatory when it’s distributed to another party, whether through mass publishing or one-on-one interaction.
Hurtful statements in materials intended for private use
(like personal diaries)
aren’t defamatory because the ideas aren’tbeing communicated to another person.
So saying a coworker is tough to work with is not defamatory
—it’s your opinion.
Saying they are habitually late (when they are not) would be considered defamatory.
Defamatory is first recorded in English around 1275–1325 and is ultimately derived from the Latin word diffāmāre (“to spread the news of”).
What is libel?
Libel is written, published, or broadcast defamation.
Defamatory statements made in newspapers, magazines, and blogs are considered libel.
So are defamatory things said on TV or radio shows.
Libel laws apply to both small- and large-scale publications.
A small blog is held just as accountable for libel as a major city newspaper.
For example, in 1964, the New York Times published an ad that described police response in Montgomery, Ala., as a “wave of terror” directed at civil rights demonstrators and included several factual errors. Montgomery police commissioner L.B. Sullivan sued for libel, but the Supreme Court ruled that the newspaper did not intend “actual malice” and was protected under the First Amendment. This landmark libel case is known as New York Times Co. v. Sullivan.
Libel, which is attested by 1250–1300, is derived from the Latin word libellus, which is the diminutive of liber (“book”).
What is slander?
Slander describes spoken defamatory statements.
The term applies to in-person interactions, like standing inside a restaurant and shouting false accusations about its sanitary conditions. Slander is harder to prove.
Most courts only consider something slander if it causes actual, proven damage to the third party. The restaurant scenario might not be considered slander if the diners keep eating and the restaurant doesn’t lose any money. In general, it’s easier to prove libel than slander, as the act of publication itself is considered injury to the other person.
Slander is:
- accusing someone of a crime they did not commit,
- spreading a rumor about an untrue affair,
- and claiming someone has false credentials.
Slander dates back to and stems from the Middle English word sclaundren
(“to cause to lapse morally, bring to disgrace, discredit, defame”).
But what about a negative opinion?
Opinions aren’t considered defamatory. It would be libel or slander to describe someone as a murderer if they weren’t convicted of murder. However, it’s not defamatory, slanderous, or libelous to call someone stupid as there’s no objective measure of stupidity.
People can be convicted of murder, but no court can declare someone stupid.
Libelous or slanderous statements are specific.
They identify an individual or group.
Remember, defamation damages another party’s reputation.
If a statement doesn’t indicate a specific target, no one’s reputation can suffer. Directly naming someone isn’t required for identification, however. For example, malicious statements about the biggest landowner in town can be defamatory without identifying the person by name.
Truth is an absolute defense against defamation.
A statement can’t be defamatory if it’s true.
Just know that isn’t a license to spread around people’s embarrassing personal information. Some information may be protected by privacy laws (which restrict the public disclosure of private facts).
What are the penalties for libel or slander?
Like other civil wrongs, defamation has a statute of limitations.
The timer starts when the defamatory statements are published or spoken, regardless of when the other person notices.
For example, if a person discovers defamatory statements about himself in a radio show six months after the broadcast, he doesn’t get an extra six months to file a lawsuit.
Libel and slander laws are addressed on a state-by-state basis.
Most states define defamation as a civil wrong.
In civil suits, the defendant pays monetary damages to the plaintiff if they’re found guilty.
Some states (including New Hampshire and Mississippi) have statutes for criminal defamation.
That means being convicted of defamation in these states could mean jail time.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Usage Notes
The Difference Between Slander and Libel
We'll tell you the secret
The English language is heavy with synonyms,
and we have a seemingly superfluous number of words for many specific things or qualities.
Some of these excesses, such as the duplicates goatish and hircine, are the result of two separate parent languages;
others, such as the hundreds of words we have for drunk, are best explained with a headshake and a shrug.
Though many people use 'slander' and 'libel' interchangeably,
the words have distinct meanings
—libel is written, while slander is spoken.
In many cases it makes no great difference whether one chooses a word or its synonym, except that some choices may be more elegant or appropriate for the linguistic register one is using
(you might write "sorry I was so inebriated," rather than "sorry I was so sozzled," when writing a letter to your grandmother, for instance).
In other cases, however, the wrong choice between two near-synonymous words may be important. Which brings us to libel and slander.
It should be noted that many people, especially when they are not writing a legal brief, or arguing in a court of law, do not distinguish between these two words, placing them both in the general semantic category of
"saying or writing something untrue about someone, in order to make them look bad."
However, there is a very clear difference between them.
Both libel and slander are forms of defamation,
but libel is found in print, and slander is found in speech.
Libel refers to a written or oral defamatory statement or representation that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression,
whereas slander refers to a false spoken statement that is made to cause people to have a bad opinion of someone.
This explanation is refreshingly simple,
but perhaps because it is so simple many people
fail to observe the nuance.
So we can make it a touch more complicated, and perhaps that will make it easier to remember.
It may help one to remember that
libel is a written form of defamation if one understands that the word comes from the Latin libellus, which is the diminutive of liber, meaning "book." The earliest use of libel, in the 14th century, had the meaning of "a written declaration, bill, certificate, request, or supplication."
Slander, regrettably, does not have so informative an origin;
it comes from the Latin scandalum ("stumbling block, offense").
If this etymological guide isn't complicated enough to help you remember the difference between these two words, we can always fall back on that old standby of making things even more unnecessarily complicated, and give additional guidance in the form of doggerel:
Although both of these words may betoken
That adherence to truth has been broken,
Remember this dictum,
Should you find yourself victim,
Libel is written, while slander is spoken.
As anyone who has ever enrolled in an introductory journalism class
(or seen a movie in which a grizzled old newspaper editor has more than 30 seconds of screen time)
knows, there is a difference between libel and slander.
This difference is very convenient, insofar as it may be summed up rather succinctly: “Libel is written; slander is spoken.”
What is less convenient, and not so often commented on, about this explanation is that it is not entirely true.
Our definitions of libel include (among others) both of the following senses:
a written statement in which a plaintiff in certain courts sets forth the cause of action or the relief sought.
a written or oral defamatory statement or representation that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression.
Enough people have used the word (in non-judicial use) to refer to oral statements that this sense has entered our language; our legal definition is slightly narrower, stressing that it is “a defamatory statement or representation especially in the form of written or printed words.”
Both libel and slander have been in English use since the 13th century, showing that no matter how many laws we pass the matter of making defamatory statements is not one that is likely to go away any time soon.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,
Liable, apt
Usage Note:
Liable, apt, and likely are used interchangeably in constructions with infinitives,
as in Zach is liable to lose, Zach is apt to lose,
and Zach is likely to lose,
but the three words have subtle distinctions in meaning.
A traditional rule holds that liable should be used only if the subject would be adversely affected by the outcome expressed by the infinitive.
The rule therefore permits
Tim is liable to fall out of his chair if he doesn't sit up straight
but not The chair is liable to be slippery,
though constructions of the latter type have long been common in reputable writing.
Apt usually suggests that the subject has a natural tendency enhancing the probability of an outcome and that the speaker is somewhat apprehensive about the outcome.
Thus apt is more naturally used in a sentence
like The fuel pump is apt to give out at any minute
than in Even the clearest instructions are apt to be misinterpreted by those idiots (since the instructions are not at fault)
or in The fuel pump is apt to give you no problems for the life of the car (since there is no reason that the speaker should regard such an outcome as unfortunate).
Likely is more general than either liable or apt.
It ascribes no particular property to the subject that would enhance the probability of the outcome.
Thus, while John is apt to lose the election
may suggest that the loss will result from something John does or fails to do, John is likely to lose the election does not. Nor does it suggest anything about the desirability of the outcomefrom the point of view of either the speaker or the subject.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary,
usage: Some usage guides say that
Liable can be used only in contexts in which the outcome is undesirable:
The picnic is liable to be spoiled by rain.
This use occurs often in formal writing but not to the exclusion of use in contexts in which the outcome is desirable:
The drop in unemployment is liable to stimulate the economy.
See also apt, likely.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Choose the Right Synonym for liable
LIABLE, OPEN, EXPOSED, SUBJECT, PRONE, SUSCEPTIBLE, SENSITIVE
mean being by nature or through circumstances likely to experience something adverse.
LIABLE implies a possibility or probability of incurring something because of position, nature, or particular situation. liable to get lost
OPEN stresses a lack of barriers preventing incurrence. a claim open to question
EXPOSED suggests lack of protection or powers of resistance against something actually present or threatening. exposed to infection
SUBJECT implies an openness for any reason to something that must be suffered or undergone. all reports are subject to review
PRONE stresses natural tendency or propensity to incur something. prone to delay
SUSCEPTIBLE implies conditions existing in one's nature or individual constitution that make incurrence probable. very susceptible to flattery
SENSITIVE implies a readiness to respond to or be influenced by forces or stimuli. unduly sensitive to criticism
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Liable vs. Apt: Usage Guide
Both liable and apt when followed by an infinitive are used nearly interchangeablywith likely.
Although conflicting advice has been givenover the years,
most current commentators accept apt when so used.
They generally recommend limiting liable to situations having an undesirable outcome, and our evidence shows that in edited writing
it is more often so used than not.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
'Liable'/'libel'
This is a gentle reminder that liable generally isused to mean “responsible” or “exposed or subject to some usually adverse contingency or action,” and libel means (among other things) “defamation of a person by written or representational means.’
You can be liable for damages if you libel someone, but you cannot be libel for damages if you liable them.
And neither of these words should be confused with labile, which means “unstable” or “readily open to change.”
