"Um ..." [Was: linguistics fashionable?]

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Fri Aug 24 22:41:58 UTC 2007


At 12:48 PM -0400 8/24/07, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>"Um ...". by Michael Erard, is again reviewed in the New York Times,
>today by William Grimes -- and again, somewhat unfavorably.
>
>Joel

Also in today's Times is a piece in the Escapes section on Martin Van
Buren, his beloved hometown Kinderhook, NY, and the O.K. Clubs:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/08/24/travel/escapes/24trip.html?ref=travel
The writer seems happy to leave it as an open question whether the
source of O.K. is "Old Kinderhook" (makes a better story for her) or
"oll korrect" (which she concedes is supported by evidence cited in
the OED, although she never mentions A. W. Read's lifework on the
topic).

LH

>
>At 8/21/2007 11:00 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at att.net>
>>Subject: Re: [ADS-L] linguistics fashionable?
>>In-Reply-To: <20070822001937.M40023 at louisiana.edu>
>>References: <200708211848.l7LFITgV013225 at malibu.cc.uga.edu>
>><20070822001937.M40023 at louisiana.edu>
>>
>>Erard's book is reviewed -- somewhat unfavorably -- by Christine
>>Kenneally in last Sunday's New York Times Book Review section.
>>
>>Joel
>>
>>At 8/21/2007 08:34 PM, Darla Wells wrote:
>>>Allure Magazine September issue has a blurb on "Bad Words" on page 146 that
>>>begins, "Linguists estimate..." and continues on to explain what eggcorns,
>>>disfluencies, Spoonerisms, blends, Mondegreens, and Freudian slips are. They
>>>are talking about a book by Michael Erard called Um...: Slips, Stumbles, and
>>>Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean. I found this to be kind of an
>>>interesting
>>>juxtaposition what with Britney Spears on the cover and being on
>>>the same page
>>>as Jessica Simpson's 2 major assets. Fashion and linguistics
>>>(lite) makes for
>>>interesting bedfellows, I guess.
>>>Darla
>>>
>>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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