"Soldier"

[Bill Palmer]

Well "reserve" or National Guard" are subsets of "army", "navy", or other
branch.  That is quite different from calling those who man our ships
"soldiers", or lumping marines in with soldiers, although these days, and
particulary in Iraq, their mission is practically identical.

But it could be that linguists are the same as journalists and don't really
make the distinction.  Particularly as we move more and more into a society
where those who serve in the military are rarer and rarer, and the use of
correct terminology is important to fewer and fewer.

Bill Palmer

----- Original Message -----
From: "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 2:54 PM
Subject: Re: "Soldier"


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Soldier"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> How is it that you don't complain about the lack special reference to
> the members of the various Reserves and the branches of the National
> Guard? Does the phrase, "regular forces," as opposed to reservists and
> guardsmen, even exist, anymore?
>
> -Wilson
> â?"â?"â?"
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
> -Mark Twain
>
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 11:14 AM, Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at bellsouth.net>
> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail
>> header -----------------------
>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at BELLSOUTH.NET>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â "Soldier"
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> CBS news correspondent Bill Plante reported today that 4,250 "soldiers" =
>> had died in Iraq, although many of them were US Marines along with a few
>> =
>> sailors & airmen.
>>
>> I read an article recently mentioning the 17 "soldiers" who had been =
>> killed in the USS Cole bombing.
>>
>> There are many, many other recent examples.
>>
>> Is "soldier" now taken to mean any member of the armed forces, even =
>> those who man ships? Or are we now so far into the all-volunteer force =
>> (>35 years) that none of our journalists have any military experience =
>> and don't know the proper terminology any more?
>>
>> Bill Palmer
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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