it's time to ban the banned words list

[Dennis Baron]

There's a new post on the Web of Language...

"The annual list of banned words was published on New Year’s Eve by  
Lake Superior State University.  This year’s no-no’s range from the  
generic superlative epithet awesome to the latest high-tech prefix,  
any gadget beginning with i-.  The list would put an end to  
truthiness, a word that so many people find apt that it was honored  
with word-of-the-year awards two years running. . . . "

Now you can find out what's wrong with such lists.  Read more on the  
Web of Language.

Go to
http:www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage

and click on "It's time to ban the banned words list"


Happy New Year.

DB

Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English
University of Illinois
608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801

office: 217-244-0568
fax: 217-333-4321

www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron

read the Web of Language:
www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org