Conversate and basically

[Beverly Flanigan]

As Mark Odegard pointed out, forms like "conversate" proliferate, and while
I might not personally use them (partly because of age, partly because of
stylistic "fussiness"), I hate to put labels on them and especially to lump
them under "standard" and "nonstandard" heads.  I'm also reluctant to
project personal motivations (or lack thereof) from such usage; neither
"charming" nor "lazy" has any place in such discussions, it seems to
me.  (I had to chide one of my TAs just today for telling his class people
are naturally "lazy" in their speech; the problem is that some students
will inevitably accuse certain groups, but never their own, as "lazy"
speakers.)

So "de gustibus..." notwithstanding, I reject taste-based labels like
"yucky," or "it sticks in my craw," or "it makes me want to vomit."  And
even I can change:  I used to say I'd _never_ use "finalize," and now I
catch myself doing so!


At 04:24 PM 1/24/01 -0500, you wrote:
>It's yucky because it's not standard English, Beverly.  That doesn't
>necessarily make it bad or evil or the first step down the slippery slope to
>ruin for the language, but it does indicate that the speaker has neither the
>time nor the inclination to discover the traditional term which he or she is
>aiming for.  I find it charming and disarming in folks who've not had
>extended educational opportunities.  I find it disturbing and reprehensible
>and outright hilarious when it comes from folks who--I'm sorry to say
>it--should know better.
>
>Hey, I enjoy and love a fluid and lively language, one that is dynamic and
>open to change.  But this, at least for me, is not that type of change.
>It's just careless, and it smacks of the type of thinking that anytime one
>can add a syllable to a term, whether it's valid or not, it's good.  Our
>students don't need to see this type of hooey coming from either their
>fellows, who set themselves up as semi-experts when they become writers, or
>from the man who wants to become the nation's attorney general.  He should
>know better, as well.
>
>It's yucky.
>
>Sorry--I'm not feeling very tolerant today.
>
>bob
>
> > From: Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU>
> > Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 10:52:21 -0500
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: Conversate and basically
> >
> > "Conversate" was used over a year ago by an African American columnist in
> > our student newspaper.  What's yucky about it?
> >
> >


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm