Some -one/-body, etc.

[Barnhart]

>Dear Rudy:

>My own impression is that the -ONE forms
>are more formal, the -BODY forms less so. I would be surprised to find
>"somebody" in formal writing, but would be equally surprised to hear
>"someone" in informal speaking (especially in the South and South
>Midland;
>I can't vouch for other areas). A Lexis/Nexus search might turn up
>something, if these are not among the stop-words.


Dear Rudy:

My own impression is that the -ONE forms
are more formal, the -BODY forms less so. I would be surprised to find
"somebody" in formal writing, but would be equally surprised to hear
"someone" in informal speaking (especially in the South and South
Midland;
I can't vouch for other areas). A Lexis/Nexus search might turn up
something, if these are not among the stop-words.

Could you suggest some sources of examination for the transition from
informal to formal English which give specific or measurable criteria?
Most general dictionaries have a label for slang; some have a label for
informal or colloquial.  But these seem to be subjectively applied.  It
is probably too much of a generalization to throw some publications
(e.g. NYT Mag and editorial/op-ed pages, Atlantic, and American Speech)
into “formal English” and others (e.g. NYT news articles, and scripts
for “Charlie Rose” or “Firing Line” or “Meet the Press” into “informal
English.”  I suspect that people slip back and forth from formal to
informal even in the same communication if they don’t know those with
whom they are communicating.

In a limited search of Nexis, somebody produced 1,379,893 STORIES;
someone turned up in 4,479,305 STORIES.

Regards,
David Barnhart

David K. Barnhart, Editor
The Barnhart Dictionary Companion [quarterly]
barnhart at highlands.com
www.highlands.com/Lexik

"Necessity obliges us to neologize."
Thomas Jefferson-August 16, 1813