Difference between revisions of "Stock clue"
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:''Not to be confused with the food-themed side event [[There Will Be Stock Clues]]'' | :''Not to be confused with the food-themed side event [[There Will Be Stock Clues]]'' | ||
| − | The term "'''stock clues'''" originally referred to | + | The term "'''stock clues'''" originally referred to [[clue]]s that lack academic importance and yet routinely occurred in quizbowl questions. |
Most examples of stock clues are [[biographical clues]] (especially in [[science]] questions) or [[trivia]]. | Most examples of stock clues are [[biographical clues]] (especially in [[science]] questions) or [[trivia]]. | ||
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==History== | ==History== | ||
Stock clues proliferated in pre-modern good quizbowl when inexperienced question writers and editors who didn't know any better recycled clues from past questions. | Stock clues proliferated in pre-modern good quizbowl when inexperienced question writers and editors who didn't know any better recycled clues from past questions. | ||
| + | Players often learned stock clues through [[osmosis]] or deliberate [[memorization]], but not [[real knowledge]]. | ||
| − | + | By the early 2010s, awareness of and conformance to the core values of good quizbowl grew to the point where stock clues became obsolete. | |
| − | ==[[wikipedia:Semantic drift|Semantic drift]] and misuse== | + | ===[[wikipedia:Semantic drift|Semantic drift]] and misuse=== |
Once stock clues no longer existed, the signifier "stock clues" had no [[wiktionary:signified|signified]]. | Once stock clues no longer existed, the signifier "stock clues" had no [[wiktionary:signified|signified]]. | ||
| − | It | + | It gained other meanings due to growing ignorance of quizbowl history and the definition of the English word "stock." |
Now, the term "stock clues" is often misused to mean any clue that a player remembers from previous questions, regardless of how important it is, how frequently it has appeared before, or where the clue is placed in the question. | Now, the term "stock clues" is often misused to mean any clue that a player remembers from previous questions, regardless of how important it is, how frequently it has appeared before, or where the clue is placed in the question. | ||
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==Examples== | ==Examples== | ||
| − | This is a list of stock clues that may have existed in pre-modern quizbowl. | + | This is a list of some "old-style" stock clues that may have existed in pre-modern quizbowl. |
===Literature=== | ===Literature=== | ||
Revision as of 03:10, 13 March 2021
- Not to be confused with the food-themed side event There Will Be Stock Clues
The term "stock clues" originally referred to clues that lack academic importance and yet routinely occurred in quizbowl questions. Most examples of stock clues are biographical clues (especially in science questions) or trivia.
Stock clues are extinct in modern good quizbowl (as of the early 2010s) due to high standards for academic importance. Despite stock clues being a historical relic, the term is still used and has become an ambiguous anachronism.
Etymology
The English adjective "stock" means "routinely used" or "cliché." In particular, a stock answer or phrase is one "that is always used and so is not really useful." See also stock character.
The chiefly British English (or Commonwealth English) phrase "chestnut" or "old chestnut" may also refer to stock clues.
History
Stock clues proliferated in pre-modern good quizbowl when inexperienced question writers and editors who didn't know any better recycled clues from past questions. Players often learned stock clues through osmosis or deliberate memorization, but not real knowledge.
By the early 2010s, awareness of and conformance to the core values of good quizbowl grew to the point where stock clues became obsolete.
Semantic drift and misuse
Once stock clues no longer existed, the signifier "stock clues" had no signified. It gained other meanings due to growing ignorance of quizbowl history and the definition of the English word "stock."
Now, the term "stock clues" is often misused to mean any clue that a player remembers from previous questions, regardless of how important it is, how frequently it has appeared before, or where the clue is placed in the question.
| important (academic, relevant) | not important (trivial) | |
|---|---|---|
| proportionate (deserved) | important clue, famous clue | |
| excessively frequent | stock clue |
Important clues used in excess of their actual importance are not stock clues, because they fail the first criterion of being unimportant.
Although semantic drift is part of the natural evolution of language, help communicate clearly by not saying "stock," a term that is now doubly no longer useful because: 1. "stock" in the original sense is likely misapplied because stock clues are extinct in modern quizbowl; 2. it is ambiguous, so people won't know which sense is meant. Instead, try: common, stale, overused, misplaced, easy, frequently used, popular, often mined, well-trodden, reused, trendy.
Examples
This is a list of some "old-style" stock clues that may have existed in pre-modern quizbowl.
Literature
- "Her childhood friend Truman Capote": Harper Lee (also, anything involving Dill being based on Capote).
- "Planned to attend Juilliard, but lost her tuition money on a New York subway train": Carson McCullers
- "wounded at the Battle of Lepanto": Miguel de Cervantes
- "refused the 1926 Pulitzer Prize": Sinclair Lewis
- "purchases Little Shirley Beans": Holden Caulfield
General History
- "tutored by Bairam Khan": Akbar the Great
- "exiled in Mongolia": Vyacheslav Molotov
- "cup-bearer to the king of Kish": Sargon the Great
- "wrote The Army of the Future": Charles de Gaulle
- "accused of having a gold spoon in his mouth": Martin Van Buren
- "said 'Because it's 2015'": Justin Trudeau
Science
- "son of a sailmaker": Victor Grignard
- "Ideal Percent Alcohol Content of Vodka": Dmitri Mendeleev
- "apprenticed to a bookbinder": Michael Faraday
- "Advocated high doses of Vitamin C": Linus Pauling
- "1% of the world's energy": Haber-Bosch Process
- "Offered presidency of Israel": Albert Einstein
Fine Arts
- "research on aldehydes": Aleksandr Borodin
- "Taught at an all girls school": Gustav Holst
- "Ira Gitler called his playing 'sheets of sound'": John Coltrane
Religion/Mythology/Philosophy
- "Originally studied mechanical engineering": Ludwig Wittgenstein
Social Science
- "written on a napkin": Laffer Curve
- "worked in a machine shop": Otto Rank
Non-examples
- "begins with a clarinet glissando": Rhapsody in Blue
- "thesis on Indo-European languages": Ferdinand de Saussure