athletic shoes (and home furnishings)

[Dave Wilton]

-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
>Of Arnold M. Zwicky
>Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 10:17 AM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: athletic shoes (and home furnishings)
>
>it occurred to me yesterday to look in the yellow pages of my phone
>book to see what heading(s) athletic shoes (sneakers, whatever) are
>listed under.  the yellow pages present a taxonomy of people and
>organizations providing goods and services, and a vocabulary to go
>along with this taxonomy.  it's a specialized vocabulary, supplying a
>single high-register term for each taxon; every so often i've had to
>explain to a foreign student that if you're looking for a doctor, you
>have to look under Physicians, for cars under Automobiles, for drug
>stores under Pharmacies, etc.

I had a similar experience recently with online "yellow pages." One would
think that many of the cross-reference problems would be solved with online
versions, but no, they follow the organization of the dead-tree editions. I
despaired at finding someone to remove an old couch and take it to the dump
until I happened on the magic word "hauling."

--Dave Wilton
  dave at wilton.net

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