Pei; was Re: "Turn on"

[Wilson Gray]

On Oct 13, 2004, at 3:02 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Pei; was Re: "Turn on"
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> "The Story of Language" was beautifully arranged, lucidly presented,
> full of fascinating observations and very hard to put down.  In
> retrospect I can see that it influenced me tremendously.
>
> Is there a long story behind Pei's lack of official recognition? I've
> never heard it. I always assumed Pei "got no respect" because of his
> extremely outspoken prescriptivism and his obvious enjoyment of
> linguistic oddities at the seeming expense of method.

The titles of his books are "The Story of [...]," not "The History/The
Grammar/A Textbook of [...]," etc. These books, by his own admission,
are mere stories. In my lost youth, l found them very interesting and a
lot of fun to read, as, apparently, you and many others also did. Yet,
any mention of his name seems to call forth negative reactions ranging
from hoots of derision ("Surely you can't believe that Pei has anything
of merit to say!") to mild, corrective commentary such as yours. It's
as though his writings were the "Mein Kampf" of linguistics instead of
merely the "Readers Digest."

>
> It looks as though he got his information on American slang primarily
> from news features.  (The second edition of "The Story of Language"
> has especially extensive lists.) Much of the vocabulary he presents as
> widely known seems to have been utterly ephemeral.

You liked the book so much that you also read the second edition? I'm
impressed!;-)

-Wilson Gray

>
> Not having looked at the book in thirty-five years, I don't pretend to
> give a definitive judgment. Somebody may want to look at it again in
> detail and get back to us.
>
> JL
>
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> Barbara Need <nee1 at MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Barbara Need
> Subject: Pei; was Re: "Turn on"
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>> Wilson Gray writes (responding to Jonathan Lightner's
>> post):
>>>>>>>
>>> Pei's comments on American slang are often unreliable.
>>
>> Alas! Poor Mario! He just don't get no respect. Everybody puts him
>> down. (Long story not worth the telling.)
>> <<<<<
>>
>> I remember his _The Story of Language_ as part of what turned me on to
>> linguistics.
>
> Me too! there was stuff that did not make sense until graduate school
> (the difference between phonetics and phonology, for instance), but I
> found the whole thing fascinating. Also his history of English book,
> and one on the development of the Romance languages, with a language
> river rather than a tree.
>
> Barbara Need
> UChicago--Linguistics
>
>
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