Who is Eddy Peters?

Bethany K. Dumas dumasb at UTK.EDU
Wed Feb 21 18:42:05 UTC 2001


Paul:
>"English is a kind of vacuum cleaner of language -- it sucks in vocabulary
>from any language it can get."
>--David Crystal, quoted in Time Magazine, "Sowing the Seeds of Speech", 1997
>
>Paul
>
>> I have always thought of the English language as being more like a vacuum
>> cleaner. Wherever it travels, it .... well, you finish the sentence.

I wonder what the earliest print citation is? I think I first heard the
metaphor as a graduate student in the 60s.

Bethasny



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