Where they drove...

[Wilson Gray]

I see what you mean, dInIs. Thaat's an excellent point.

-Wilson

On 2/15/06, Dennis R. Preston <preston at msu.edu> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Where they drove...
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Wilson, you are right in pointing out that this is a joke, but isn't
> the history of the language full of jokes. Some of us well-educated
> wags started saying something in one generation, and the next (poorly
> educated, it goes without saying) generations didn't get our
> cutting-edge humor and instituted a change  in the language. I take
> this to be a case of apparent change from above that turns out to be
> actually change from below (obviating the need for me to return to my
> sociolinguistics classes with yet another counter-example to the
> change-from-below norm).
>
> dInIs
>
> >I'm accustomed to hearing or reading "stayed away in droves," etc. But
> >I've always regarded it as a jocular thing. I.e., people who use such
> >forms are consciously aware of their proper use and are purposely
> >misusing them for effect.
> >
> >-Wilson
> >
> >On 2/15/06, Joel Shaver <vole at netw.com> wrote:
> >>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>-----------------------
> >>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>  Poster:       Joel Shaver <vole at NETW.COM>
> >>  Subject:      Where they drove...
> >>
>
> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>  I noticed last week that NPR reported the effects of the strike on
> >>  voting in Nepal...  In the small paragraph that accompanied the
> >>  broadcast, the sentence "As a result, voters stayed home in droves"
> >>  was used.  (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?
> >>  storyId=5198559)
> >>
> >>  At the risk of relying upon intuition (mine, and that of two speakers
> >>  from my home state, WA, who both laughed when they read the
> >>  sentence)...  Do most of us allow any groups of people to *stay*
> >>  anywhere in droves?  Especially when it's implied that they are not
> >>  physically together?  The version of the Oxford American dictionary
> >>  that Apple distributes as a widget has as a secondary definition, "a
> >>  large number of people or things doing or undergoing the same thing,"
> >>  and the example they give is "tourists have stayed away in droves
> >>  this summer."  This seems like an unusual example to me, although
> >>  with a stretch of the imagination I can picture large groups of
> >>  tourists buzzing around a central attraction at a safe distance, like
> >>  mosquitoes over a lake...  The OED emphasizes that a drove is a
> >>  "crowd or multitude... esp. when moving in a body."
> >>
> >>  A search of Google for "stayed home in droves" yields only 405
> >>  results, but "stayed away in droves" yields about 16,800!  The total
> >>  number of hits for "in droves" is 1,610,000, so it's only about 1% of
> >>  the total use, although there are plenty of other ways to express the
> >>  idea.
> >>
> >>  Do we have a widening of the field?
> >>
> >>  Incidentally, a search of the ADS-L archives for the word "droves"
> >>  comes up with not many results, and most of them hold with the idea
> >>  of people *coming* or *immigrating* or *moving* or *leaving* in
> >>  droves, although there was one message that I liked from Steve Kl.
> >>  about arsonists who would "set buildings on fire in droves"!  There
> >>  was a message from someone in Texas that included the phrase "stayed
> >>  away in droves" in a list of Texanese examples form 1962...  So this
> >>  type of thing has been going on for a while without anyone asking my
> >>  permission, apparently!
> >>
> >>  I guess that's good for now.
> >>
> >>  Joel A. Shaver
> >>  University of Glasgow
> >>  (where everyone droves on the left side of the road)
> >>  --------------------------------
> >>
> >>  Veni, Sancte Spiritus
> >>  et emitte coelitus
> >>  lucis tuae radium.
> >>  Veni, pater pauperum,
> >>  veni, dator munerum,
> >>  veni, lumen cordium.
> >>
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> >>
> >
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> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor
> Department of English
> 15C Morrill Hall
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824
> 517-353-4736
> preston at msu.edu
>
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