Experts List for Interviews

[Page Stephens]

I am 60 years old and thus no longer in touch with those so much younger who
are constantly inventing new words and new meanings for old words.

I assume that most of us old farts have no more idea have no more idea of
current usage than a snake has hips and that as a result we are a day late
and a dollar short when it comes to underatanding what the hell those so
much younger than we are are talking about.

Am I wrong or should not any experts list include native speakers of
American a she is spoke who are between the ages of 4 and above whose
fertile minds are constantly reinventing the language we speak and write?

They may not have our academic credentials but they know a hell of a lot
more about current usages in their age groups than we do.

As a long  retired anthropologist I realize that there is difference between
an informant and an academic but I also would suggest lest this difference
blinds us to the obvious fact that our informants  know far more than we do
about the subjects in which they are experts and we are not.

On the other hand unless we learn from them first hand it is my opinion that
we will end up only learning from them second hand long after their usages
have survived in American.

Page Stephens

ary 07, 2004 12:21 PM
Subject: Experts List for Interviews


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Gerald Cohen <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
> Subject:      Experts List for Interviews
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
>
> At 9:07 AM -0500 1/7/04, Grant Barrett wrote:
> >Folks, the requests for interviews with media related to the ADS Words
> >of the Year vote are beginning to appear. Like last year, I am putting
> >together an "experts" list that I can give out to media requesting
> >interviews via the ADS web site. I send the list, they decide who to
> >call.
> >
> >If you are interested in being on that list,... <snip>
>
> Grant,
>    Be sure to put Barry Popik down for "spider hole." Also, why not
> broaden the scope of your information to include experts on a variety
> of topics which produce FAQs? The ads-l expert-list could then be
> publicized as *the* place for journalists to turn to if they want
> information on a given lexical/dialectal/etc. topic? Specialists from
> other linguistic groups (e.g. DSNA) could also be invited to be
> listed with us. This would be a major service to journalists writing
> on language and would provide ads-l with good publicity.
>
>    Just a suggestion, which may turn out to be too time-consuming to
> be practical. Meanwhile, thanks for the work you've been doing.
>
> Gerald
>
> P.S. Barry will be back in the U.S. about Jan. 24.