What does ACCENT mean in American English?

[Thomas Paikeday]

A very interesting discussion.

I think more evidence is needed in regard to what is generally
understood and more of the context of "I don't like her accent" to
determine the intended meaning here. A web search may indeed prove
useful in regard to the first point. Perhaps Sonja Lanehart could supply
more of the particular context in which the sentence was uttered. I do
think it is worthwhile flogging this horse.

RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>
> In a message dated 9/14/2001 12:17:44 PM, laurence.horn at YALE.EDU writes:
>
> << >>"The only reason I am dropping the class is because of the teacher. I
> >  >don't like her accent."
> >  >
> The only way I can take the above is the phonological one; I can't
> imagine in being used anywhere I've lived to refer to the content,
> focus, or direction of the course "she" teaches.
>
> Larry
>  >>
>
> Think again, Larry, about what people do in actual conversations!
>
> See NEW OXFORD DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH, s.v. ACCENT, "3. a special or
> particular emphasis: _the accent is on participation_."
>
> I don't have time to do a web search, but I'd guess one could find examples
> of this pretty easily. I will grant you that general ACCENT is not used this
> way without some explicitly defining context. However, as I'm sure Larry
> knows (!), a snippet of conversation divorced from the rest of the
> conversation may well divorce the snippet from the explicitly defining
> context that was implicitly understood by the participants in the
> conversation.
>