Word or Phrase of the Year

[Baker, John]

        The time is approaching for the American Dialect Society to select and announce its Word of the Year.  This typically is the ADS's one moment in the media sun over the course of the year.  I would like to make some suggestions as to how ADS can maximize its annual 15 minutes.

        1.      ADS should take this opportunity to get a broader message out than simply that the WOTY is SARS or embedded or whatever.  I'm not sure what that message should be; I invite response.  I suppose in general that it could be about language and linguistics generally, about the role of linguists, or about the role specifically of the ADS; the latter two options seem to me to be the most promising.

        2.      There should be a spokesperson or spokespeople who have been designated in advance, who are articulate and well-credentialed, and who are available to talk to the media.

        3.      The WOTY information should be added as promptly as possible to the ADS website.

        4.      Instead of just Word of the Year, it might be better to say Word or Phrase of the Year, at least if a phrase is in fact the winner.  There's a lot of time lost explaining that words also include phrases.

John Baker