heart-rendering

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Fri Feb 15 16:59:18 UTC 2008


>LH,
>
>I call your "screed" (which my Eudora likes) and "prescriptivists"
>and raise you Eudora's rejection of "sociolingusitic(s)."

Even if you spell it in the old-fashioned way?  (that "lingusitic" is
one I often manage myself, even without the "socio-" prefix)

LH

>
>dInIs
>
>>---------------------- 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: heart-rendering
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>At 7:50 AM -0800 2/15/08, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>In his prepared public statement on yesterday's campus shootings,
>>>NIU President John Peters described the outpouring of public
>>>sympathy as "renewing and heart-rendering."  He used the word
>>>"heart-rendering" in this connection twice within one minute.
>>>
>>>    This is the first time I've heard "heart-rendering" [sic] used as
>>>a synomnym for "moving; heart-warming."
>>>
>>>    JL
>>
>>You've been living a (perhaps enviably) sheltered life.  I'm quite
>>sure I've heard it, and a rather substantial number of the 56,100 or
>>so raw g-hits involve naive occurrences, as opposed to screeds by
>>prescriptivists (some detailing with delightful gruesomeness what the
>>process of rendering a heart would entail) that would presumably be
>>unnecessary in the absence of other naive occurrences...
>>
>>LH, wondering why Eudora thinks I made up not only "prescriptivists"
>>but "screed"
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
>--
>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
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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



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