dialect in novels

[Dennis R. Preston]

>>Oooooops! Typo - of course I mean "mud bugs."

dInIs



>>You bet. And imagine how entymologists would react if they heard
>>somebody call them crawdads "mid bugs"!
>
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>dInIs
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>
>>On Sat, 24 Feb 2001 14:00:13 -0500 "Dennis R. Preston"
>><preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU> writes:
>>>
>>>  I'm always yukkin it up up here to Michigan when they call them
>>>  little critters crayfish.
>>
>>"Critters" is an interesting word. Entymologists commonly refer to the
>>things they study as critters, and they do this because it is actually
>>more precise than words that a layman might use and might sound more
>>scholarly. So, for example, a gardener might refer to all those things
>>eating his flowers and vegetables as "bugs". But to an entymologist a bug
>>is a specific class of insects. A Japanese beetle is NOT a bug. Similarly
>>to a lay person insects are bugs and beetles and spiders and such. But an
>>entymologist knows that spiders are not insects. To get around the
>>problem, they usually call the whole group of such things "critters."
>>even in rather formal venues.
>>
>>D
>
>--
>Dennis R. Preston
>Department of Linguistics and Languages
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
>preston at pilot.msu.edu
>Office: (517)353-0740
>Fax: (517)432-2736

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736