Was: wifebeater Is: Out of the Loop Could be: Prince Albert

[Aaron E. Drews]

On Thu, 6 Jul 2000, Derrick Chapman wrote:

}I thought "Bob's your uncle" was an exclusively British working-class
}phenomenon.

I think "exclusive" might be a bit strong here.  Almost exclusively
British, except for the search engine Lynne found in Toronto.  But many
Canadians have a little bit of anglophilia in them.

As for working-class, the only working-class folk I've encountered are
Scots, and I've never heard it used.  Might be a north-south thing.  I
have heard it used by some of the participants in my thesis, very clearly
*not* working-class.  One of these participants said their British teacher
(in Canada) used it, and teaching is not considered working class here (by
profession, teaching is (or used to be) on par with docotrs, lawyers, and
military officers; by pay, the dustmen probably get more).

--Aaron

________________________________________________________________________
Aaron E. Drews                               The University of Edinburgh
aaron at ling.ed.ac.uk                  Departments of English Language and
http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~aaron       Theoretical & Applied  Linguistics

"MERE ACCUMULATION OF OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE IS NOT PROOF"
        --Death