"at" at the end of a where phrase

[Duane Campbell]

On Sun, 7 Dec 2003 22:37:32 -0500 Scott Sadowsky
<lists at SPANISHTRANSLATOR.ORG> writes:

> This still implicitly promotes the idea that there are certain lects
> that
> are better than others -- those used by the highly educated vs.
> those used
> by the relatively ignorant, those used by people worthy of gainful
> employment vs. those used by vagrants, bums and good-for-nothings,
> and so on.
>
> Why not just make explicit the underpinnings of all this: power.

Oh, horsefeathers. If you want a waitress ... a waitperson job in a tony
Manhattan restaurant, you don't walk in in pink hot pants and heart
shaped sunglasses, nor do you speak as if you were raised in a
Mississippi juke joint. But equally, try finding a job as a bartender on
the morning shift at a Bowery bar if you walk in wearing a blue blazer,
gray flannels, wingtips, and talking like a Connecticut Brahman.

I taught my children that there is no such thing as right language or
wrong language, but there is appropriate language. If a person is unable
or unwilling to learn the language of moderately educated people, that
can reasonably be taken as an important factor in judging ability to
perform in a lucrative and upwardly mobile job. Power of the elite over
the downtrodden has little to do with it.


D

I am Duane Campbell and I approve this message