accusative cursing

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:09 PM -0400 4/11/07, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>This is the first time that I've run into a discussion whether a
>purely phonological variant of a word makes it a non-word. Huh?

This may hinge on the old issue of "word" = 'lexeme' vs. 'word-form'.
What I was willing to concede is that we may want to call "naked" and
"nekkid" different variants of the same word, where "word" =
'lexeme'.  Are "with" [wIT] and "with" [wID] different words?
Neither is a non-word, but that doesn't mean they're both (separate)
words.


>Does
>that fact that most of you mispronounce my name (with the "bet"
>vowel) make it a non-name?

I don't think that would follow.  According to my characterization
below, that would make [dEnis] a variant of your name rather than a
separate name.

LH

>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>Subject:      Re: accusative cursing
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>At 9:25 PM -0400 4/10/07, James C Stalker wrote:
>>>Laurence Horn writes:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>a.k.a. "nekkid"?
>>>>
>>>If you wish, but since it isn't a real word, who cares about the spelling?
>>
>>Not a real word?  "nekkid" has 822,000 raw google hits.  That doesn't
>>necessarily make it a real word, but it does seem to suggest it's a
>>real semi-standardized variant of one (cf. "purty", "nucular").  We
>>need the double -k- in "nekkid" (rather than spelling it "nekid") to
>>denote ['nEkId] rather than either ['nE(y)kId] (= the standard
>>pronunciation of "naked") or ['nIkId] (the standard pronounciation of
>>"knee-kid").
>>
>>LH
>>
>>>In part, I josh, but not wholly.  Are there conventional spellings for
>>>conventionally unacceptable pronunciations in unacceptable dialects, except
>>>maybe in DARE?  Why do we need the double k?  As with Wilson, musings rather
>>>than real questions.
>>>
>>>JCS
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>James C. Stalker
>>>Department of English
>>>Michigan State University
>>>
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>>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
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>
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>
>Dennis R. Preston
>University Distinguished Professor
>Department of English
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