defining civil war

[Dennis Baron]

Definitions of civil war and not-civil-war are circulating in the  
press and on the airwaves.  There's a new entry on the Web of  
Language discussing this new bit of language in the news.

http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage

"Defining civil war . . . . It’s not often that lexicographers get to  
weigh in on matters of national policy.  But since the war in Iraq  
has now been dubbed a civil war by the news media, and not-a-civil- 
war by the president, it might be useful to see how the dictionary- 
makers deal with civil war. . . ."


Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English
University of Illinois
608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801

office: 217-244-0568
fax: 217-333-4321

www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron

read the Web of Language:
www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage

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