ADS visibility

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 01:02 PM 9/26/01 +0800, you wrote:
>At 12:36 PM -0400 9/26/01, Grant Barrett wrote:
>>(Aaargh. Enter key in wrong place.)
>>
>>>  My wife, Hollis, was wearing her spectacular ADS shirt at a Celtic Day
>>>  festival last weekend when a phonology teacher at SUNY New Paltz
>>>  engaged her in a conversation about the ADS.  She had NEVER heard of
>>>  it.  How could this be?  Don't instructors tell their students about
>>>  professional societies?
>>
>>As a student I'll respond by saying that I recently gave a short oral
>>presentation in a French conversation class about the curious pleonasm of
>>"loup-garou" and much of the class hadn't heard of the OED and wasn't quite
>>sure what etymology was. Still more were surprised to find that there is
>>actually a difference between dictionaries; I suppose they had been
>>wondering their whole short lives why there were so many dictionaries
>>republishing identical material.
>One problem may be the locution "the dictionary", which suggests
>there is really only one, like "the Bible" (maybe with slightly
>different wording, as in the latter case, but essentially the same,
>chapter and verse).  It then turns into "the Dictionary".  Of course,
>the same problem arises with "the Encyclopedia", but that's not OUR
>concern.
>
>larry

I have an undergrad this quarter who insists that "Noah Webster's
Dictionary" is the bible of pronunciation and usage.  Ugh!  (He doesn't
know the difference between Noah's and the modern Websters, of course.)

_____________________________________________
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