Sweaters

[Anne Gilbert]

----- Original Message -----
From: Aaron E. Drews <aaron at LING.ED.AC.UK>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, October 29, 1999 1:29 PM
Subject: Sweaters


Aaron:

> I've enclosed a picture of an item of clothing.  What I'm wondering is:
> would anybody call this item of clothing a sweatshirt?  If you don't call
it
> a sweatshirt, do you think younger people do, or your colleagues and
peers?
>
> The reason I ask is because I'm noticing quite a few people calling this a
> sweatshirt in my data, where I would expect either sweater or jumper.
What
> I want to know is if "sweatshirt" is a legitimate variant in any variety
of
> American English, or if my subjects are finding a way of avoiding having
to
> say either sweater or jumper, or if my subjects just plain can't tell the
> difference from this picture.

Well, *I* wouldn't call the item a sweatshirt.  And I don't think anybody I
know would, either.  The reason, at least to me, is that the garment is
knitted from wool yarn rather than cotton fiber as most "sweatshirts" that I
know of are.  Bear in mind that I live in Seattle, Washington, and perhaps
usages are different where you are than they are here.

Anne Gilbert