lol (was: Re: /wh/ - /w/)

[Patti J. Kurtz]

I think I see what Mark is saying here and I've noticed it, too, though
I  never really thought about till now.  But I have a lot of e mail
friends who use "lol" the way I use : )  (I don't)  But it seems to be
sort of marker saying, 'I'm making a joke here, people).  So perhaps we
are seeing shift from the original meaning of "lol"

(I went looking for examples, but couldn't find any off the top of my head.

Patti Kurtz

mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU wrote:

>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU>
>Subject:      lol (was: Re: /wh/ - /w/)
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Marsha Alley <MARSHAALLEY at MSN.COM> writes:
>
>
>
>Right now I'm in Sutherlin, [hwich, lol] is just north of Roseburg.
> <<<<<
>
>I'm curious about what you mean by "lol". I picked that up as
>e-mail/Internet language for "laughing out loud", along with "rotfl" for
>"rolling on the floor laughing", and I have been used to using them only for
>when I am actually laughing out loud or, respectively, uncontrollably,
>though not actually falling off my chair.
>
>You, on the other hand, seem to be using it about as equivalent to a :-),
>indicating just that you're making a little joke here. Please understand, my
>intention is not to criticize! We seem to be having a linguistic change in
>progress here. A friend of my wife's scatters "LOL" and "ROTFL" through her
>e-mails the way I shake pepper on my eggs, almost all over.
>
>-- Mark A. Mandel
>[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]
>
>

--

Dr. Patti J. Kurtz

Assistant Professor, English

Director of the Writing Center

Minot State University

Minot, ND 58707



Foster: What about our evidence? They've got to take notice of that.



Straker: Evidence. What's it going to look like when Henderson claims
that we manufactured it, just to get a space clearance program?



Foster: But we are RIGHT!



Straker: Sometimes, Colonel, that's not quite enough.