Turd Ferguson etc.

[Jonathan Lighter]

Thanks to those who responded to my somewhat ironical query.

My high school German teacher back in 1964 frequuently reproved us by saying, "Do you think you can learn by osmosis?"  and variant constructions.

Having administered hundreds of slang questionnaires - formal and informal - over the years, I can say that Arnold seems to be right on every count.  Undergraduates (especially freshmen and sophomores) generally will record whatever pops into their heads as long as it's not "obviously" standard English.  Roughly 60% is never seen or heard again, and most of that seems to be prima facie non-viable.

In my experience, far less than one per cent of the responses are of the "take it for granite" variety - informally known to some of us as "stupidisms."

So about a third or so of student contributions turn out to have observable currency, and about half of these in any class are also likely to be "new."

At least these are my impressions.

JL



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