another one from a post!

Mark Mandel thnidu at GMAIL.COM
Wed Aug 26 18:30:00 UTC 2009


(sent to the list and to Arnold directly)

On Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 6:06 PM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:

>
> i spent some five hours this morning responding to queries about
> things that might possibly be labeled as eggcorns.  i now see that
> this was entirely wasted time, and i won't do it again.  i should have
> followed up up on my earlier posting about proposing to go away from
> this newsgroup, following in the footsteps of dennis preston, roger
> shuy, and barry popik (three very different personalities, by the
> way).  i will now unsubscribe.
>

Oh, hell, PLEASE don't let the nincompoops Greshamize this list further!
Your efforts to keep this and many other demarcations* clear, and those are
very much appreciated by those of us who are seriously committed to the
study of language.

Please remember that you're not obligated to answer questions or deal with
issues or threads that you don't want to. I say this as another who feels an
often unnecessary compulsion to answer, clarify, and expound.*** No one has
commanded or even asked you to be eggcorn approval (whatever); you can take
off that nonexistent hat and throw it away forever, and I beg you to do so.

* I prefer the latinate spelling, so as not to feel personally** involved.

**Mark A. Mandel

*** And footnote.

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



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