"ad hominem" attacks? I don't think so

[Dennis R. Preston]

Not in the least. It was used in the context of calling attention to
(and defining) his (and many others') crackpot linguistic ideas. To
be fair, I should have called him a "linguistic crackpot"; I honestly
have no idea about the rest of his ideas at all.

dInIs

>Calling Mr. Fiske a "crackpot" is not an ad hominem attack?

--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics & Germanic, Slavic,
      Asian & African Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027
e-mail: preston at msu.edu
phone: (517) 353-9290