Nobody's Perfect Dept.

[Beverly Flanigan]

Here's another gem, from a thesis I'm reading, quoting one Benedict
Anderson, who writes on "imagined communities" and the rise of "print
capitalism":  The Reformation and the use of vernaculars allowed
"idiolects, i.e. groupings of vernacular dialects, to be assembled, within
definite limits, into print-languages far fewer in number" (1991, p.
43).  Footnote (Anderson's or my student's?):  "An idiolect is the entire
repertoire of lects (i.e. language varieties) for any given language."

At 08:50 AM 12/15/2006, you wrote:
> From a professional explication for undergraduates of cultural-theory terms:
>
>   "Phoneme... A phoneme is the smallest significant unit in language;
> thus, both 'a" and 'an' are phonemes, but 'n' is not."
>
>   --Ross C. Murfin, "Glossary of Theoretical and Critical Terms," in
> Daniel R. Schwarz, ed. _Joseph Conrad: The Secret Sharer...with
> Biographical and Historical Contexts...and Essays from Five Contemporary
> critical Perspectives_ (Boston: Bedford Books, 1997), p. 264.
>
>
>
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