clusivity
Original: clusivity on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Woman with glasses (orange shirt): Are you familiar with the linguistic concept of clusivity?
Other woman: Hm?
Panel 2:
Woman with glasses: Some languages distinguish between "we" meaning "I and others" and "we" meaning "you and I." In English if you call someone and say, "we," it's ambiguous as to whether you're referring to, say, you and the members of your household or to you and the person on the phone.
Panel 3:
Woman with glasses: So?
Other woman: So now that I have a baby I'm calling all my ex boyfriends.
Panel 4:
Woman with glasses: What?
Other woman (on the phone): Steve. Steve, it's Elaine. We have a child.
Votey:
Voice from phone: We have a child?!
Elaine: No, WE have a child.
Woman with glasses (orange shirt): Are you familiar with the linguistic concept of clusivity?
Other woman: Hm?
Panel 2:
Woman with glasses: Some languages distinguish between "we" meaning "I and others" and "we" meaning "you and I." In English if you call someone and say, "we," it's ambiguous as to whether you're referring to, say, you and the members of your household or to you and the person on the phone.
Panel 3:
Woman with glasses: So?
Other woman: So now that I have a baby I'm calling all my ex boyfriends.
Panel 4:
Woman with glasses: What?
Other woman (on the phone): Steve. Steve, it's Elaine. We have a child.
Votey:
Voice from phone: We have a child?!
Elaine: No, WE have a child.
Alt text
A four-panel comic. A woman in an orange shirt and glasses explains to another woman the linguistic concept of "clusivity" — that some languages distinguish between "we" meaning "I and others" versus "we" meaning "you and I," and that in English saying "we" on a phone call is ambiguous about whether you mean your household or yourself plus the listener. The other woman replies that, now that she has a baby, she is calling all her ex boyfriends. In the final panel she is on the phone saying, "Steve. Steve, it's Elaine. We have a child" — deliberately exploiting the ambiguous "we." In the votey aftercomic, a panicked man's voice from the phone says "We have a child?!" beside a chaotic scribble, and Elaine, smirking, clarifies: "No, WE have a child" — meaning herself and the baby, not him.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.