ahold

[James Smith]

I was actually taught "supercede" back in the day, and
had to be reeducated to the "correct" spelling.  I
have spoken and read "idiosyncrasy", but I believe
this is the first time in my life I have written the
word, and save for having the spelling brought to my
attention there is at least a 50% probability I would
have used a non-standard spelling.



--- "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
wrote:

> On Jun 13, 2005, at 9:31 AM, John Baker asks:
>
> > ... What are your views on supercede and alright?
>
> i generally correct "supercede" and "idiosyncracy",
> but i'm not
> entirely sure this is a good use of my time and
> other people's.
> especially since these two occur in the writing of
> highly educated
> careful writers, including some linguists, and they
> aren't slips of
> the pen.
>
> on "alright", see MWDEU again.  i've totally given
> up on this one,
> though i myself write "all right".  it's just one of
> my little quirks.
>
> the situation with "alright" has gone so far that a
> great many people
> perceive the spelling "all right" as the innovation
> -- and an
> ignorant one at that.  several people have written
> me with the
> suggestion that "all right" is in fact an eggcorn, a
> mistaken
> reanalysis of the unitary "alright"!  and they can
> explain why
> "alright" is phonologically, syntactically, and
> semantically a unit,
> so should not be written as two words.  on the
> semantic side, they
> point out that absolutely none of their uses of
> "alright" can be
> paraphrased as "completely correct".  some even
> observe that they do
> have the expression "all right" in sentences like
> "Your answers are
> all right" 'All of your answers are right', but that
> this is
> phonologically, syntactically, and semantically
> distinct from their
> "alright"; note "Your answers are all, every one of
> them, right".
> this is excellent reasoning, and at this point i'm
> not willing to
> maintain that all these sensitive observations are
> irrelevant and
> that the correct spelling is "all right", just
> because.
>
> arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)
>

James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.



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