discourse harassment

[Beverly Flanigan]

A great coinage!  I immediately stuck it in my DA/CA folder for next week,
when I teach Goffman, Gumperz, and Sacks et al.

At 01:33 PM 5/12/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>Since considerable time is spent on this list establishing origins of
>words and phrases, I thought I would recount the creation  of the
>phrase "discourse harassment" so as to save future scholars the
>difficulty of tracking it down.
>
>My assistants and I were having a discussion in our office (but with
>the door ajar). A colleague in a nearby office (an "unratified
>overhearer" in Goffmanesque terms) took a turn in our conversation,
>and we immediately accused him of "discourse harassment."
>
>This neologism was created during the week of May 5 (alas, the
>specific day appears to be lost to history), in room A-740 Wells Hall
>at Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI USA by Dennis R.
>Preston (Professor of Linguistics) and Erica Benson and Chunhua Ma
>(Administrative Associates for the 2003 LSA Summer Institute and
>doctoral candidates in linguistics). Further demographic details are
>available on request.
>
>dInIs
>
>PS: The harasser was in Room A-739 Wells Hall at the time of the
>harassment, but that information may not be relevant to those who are
>interested in such matters.
>
>--
>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