"Like" abuse redivivus/ to "be all"

[Jonathan Lighter]

I share Ben's view.

  Also, it seems preferable to post a message that may contain new information than to search the archives of various sites for previous discussion. This is particularly true when one is watching several threads at once.

  JL



Benjamin Lukoff <blukoff at ALVORD.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Benjamin Lukoff
Subject: Re: "Like" abuse redivivus/ to "be all"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Sun, Apr 13, 2008 at 9:37 PM, Arnold M. Zwicky
wrote:
>
> On Apr 13, 2008, at 5:55 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> > Phrases of the type, "how big of a dog," as well as "this/that big of
> > a dog," are hardly new. It's common in every variety of BE that I've
> > ever heard, since I was a child in Texas.
>
> i didn't fuckin claim it was new. i have, in fact, published about
> some of its history, as well as its analysis. see the discussion in
> my 1995 paper:
>
> http://www.stanford.edu/~zwicky/exceptional-degree-markers.pdf
>
> i have mentioned the phenomenon, and my research, and the literature
> on it (which goes back at least 25 years) many times on ADS-L over the
> years. and on Language Log. (i have more postings in preparation --
> mostly in response to the Safire piece, which is inaccurate in any
> number of ways).
>
> but i begin to despair of talking about phenomena here. apparently
> all history disappears once the week is over, so that people start a
> discussion of a phenomenon as if no one had ever talked about it
> before (here or anywhere), so i too am apparently supposed to start
> again from zero and say everything i said before all over again. i'm
> not sure i can function as a scholar and expositor in such an
> environment.

I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that, while this does seem to be a
slight bit of overreaction, your presence on the ADS list would be
missed, and I do hope you continue to read and post.

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

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