refugee, IDP, evacuee

[Jonathan Lighter]

Thank you, Sally and Dennis.  Had I thought otherwise, I'd have kept quiet.

What's possibly unprecedented in this case is that people from both right and left are jumping on this bandwagon.  Nobody wants to be "behind the curve."

I decree that the word "linguistics" must be removed from all educational departments and programs in this country.  As everyone knows, a "linguist" is someone who speaks many languages.  Few self-described academic "linguists" are fluent in many languages, so the designation "linguistics"  is easily seen as a classic "bait-and-switch" gambit to draw students into costly and impractical courses of study, disproportionately taught by leftwing liberal professors who are patently unable to instruct students to be fluent in the world languages that are required in so many practical fields of study in the 21st Century.

Needed linguistic instruction, moreover, has long been offered honestly and effectively in departments of French, Spanish, German, Chinhese, and so forth.

The endemic, inaccurate use of the word "linguistics" sends an incorrect and potentially damaging message to young people, who, once bitten, learn to be unnecessarily suspicious of our institutions of higher education.  It should be removed from all departments, programs, and curricula. Once this important step is achieved, we can begin to examine the larger question of whether so-called "linguistic" curricula have any constructive role to play in America's institutions of higher education....

Blah blah blah blah blah..........

JL


"Sally O. Donlon" <sod at LOUISIANA.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Sally O. Donlon"
Subject: Re: refugee, IDP, evacuee
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hear you, Jonathan.

But, you're taking on an established and very effective propaganda
machine with a long and robust history. Marx thought that controlling
the presses was the answer; I think that control of the vernacular
matters much more. (For instance, just who's "right to life" is at
stake anyway? What makes it morally OK to harvest organs of a person
who's biological functions have diminished to a level somewhat higher
than a first-term fetus, but murder to terminate that fetus?)

The real "word cranks" are no joke. They're smart and manipulative, and
they operate from a very real agenda.

sally


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