bucket brigade & chain gang

[Lynne Murphy]

Mark Mandel writes:
> "Chain gang" is not dialectal US, but standard, and AFAIK is understood
> everywhere in the same way. It refers to a crew of convicts working outside the
> prison, generally on some kind of public works project like a road, under guard
> and chained together to prevent escape. They have historically been used mostly
> in Southern states, or such is my impression. I don't know how much they are
> still used. The term was in New England newspapers last year when a
> Massachusetts sheriff used convict labor in approximately this way, evoking many
> protests.

when I said that the Collins Concise treats "chain gang" as US dialectal, I didn't
mean that it wasn't standard US--I meant that they had a dialect label "US" on the
definition.  What's standard in the US is not standard here.

Sorry for the confusion,

Lynne


Dr M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK