Fwd: "sort of" is elitist? (now with data)

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

i sent out three queries and have gotten two responses so far.  this
one's from david denison at manchester.  i have some comments at the
end.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "David Denison" <d.denison at manchester.ac.uk>
> Date: October 6, 2004 11:11:17 AM PDT
> To: "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at csli.stanford.edu>
> Subject: Re: Fwd: "sort of" is elitist? (now with data)
> Reply-To: d.denison at manchester.ac.uk
>
> ...Wow.  The USA really is a different planet sometimes.  The election
> issues and the arguments already seem utterly bizarre as to their
> content (to the extent that there is any).  But I hadn't heard this
> angle.
>
> Anyway, the only relevant refs to kind of vs sort of that I can recall
> are in the Biber et al Longman Grammar, eg a chart on stance
> adverbials in (2002: 870), but there are other refs in the index.
> AFAIK they only refer to Br vs Am, but of course - as we discussed in
> relation to Penny Eckert's comment when I gave a paper at Stanford - a
> perception of elitishness or, as one of the correspondents put it,
> pretentiousness, in _sort of_ (which was roughly what Penny intuited)
> could derive indirectly from it having BrE associations, given the
> impression that Hollywood - and others - have of Britsand their
> demeanour.
>
> That isn't to say that nobody has discussed this, but I don't recall
> seeing it.  Ask LINGUIST?  I'm happy to send you my sort/kind bibliog,
> but I scanned it quickly and didn't notice anything likely to have sth
> relevant to the question of Kerry's suitability to have his finger on
> the button.

-----

as i said to david in reply, there's actually a pretty subtle point
here (or perhaps i'm being over-ingenious).  i think we need to
distinguish (a) people's (unexamined) attitudes and beliefs about
language; (b) the attitudes and beliefs they express when you ask them;
and (c) the facts about language structure and use.  it's the (a)-(b)
distinction that's subtle: directing people's attention to the
difference between "kind of" and "sort of" might lead them to look for
some relevant social difference and tap into their beliefs about
british vs. american english, which (before they were asked) they might
not have connected to these forms before.

in any case, so far it seems that the facts about american usage aren't
known.

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)