Tough one! 04:42 Sep 18, 2009
Because it's a totally artificial thing. If I'm not totally mistaken, 'unbefremdlich' was derived from 'befremdlich' by waffly journalists trying to find a new different waffly way of saying 'befremdlich', by writing 'nicht unbefremdlich'. Then the 'nicht' disappeared somewhere over time, and hey presto the new trendy waffly word for long social science papers or cultural reviews: UNBEFREMDLICH. As far as I know, there's no real way of formally defining where on a scale from 'slightly deviating from exactly normal' to 'not totally weird' it could be found. The closest to my own understanding of this undefined artificial creation would be Helen Shiner's suggestion, but as I'm not sure about the term at all, I can't honestly give it a full 'AGREE' (sorry Helen!). Also: keep in mind that the people who formulate questionnaires aren't always absolute linguists... (And sorry if I'm only waffling myself and not providing concrete help! If anyone else has concrete information about or definitions of 'unbefremdlich', please correct me.) |