Temperature Stated As a "Negative"

[Lynne Murphy]

Damn, I know I had a long correspondence on this somewhere--would have
thought it was on ADS-L, but doesn't seem to be in the archives.  Now can't
remember enough of the content, but will say that I like what they do in
Swedish--it can be _10 grader varmt_ '10 degrees warm' (i.e. 'plus') or 10
grader kallt '10 degrees cold' (i.e. 'minus/negative')--but I don't think
that'd work very well in Fahrenheit!

Lynne

--On 15 January 2009 20:01 -0500 Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> Another Midwesterner.  I didn't begin to hear "negative [number]" for
> any use until my oldest got to negative numbers in math, early 1980s.
> When I was in school we talked about the "square root of minus one,"
> not "negative one."  I suspect that came out the changes in math
> education in the 60s and 70s, developed and pioneered at the
> University of Illinois.  And then it spread to other domains.
>
> Herb
>
> On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 6:43 PM, Kari Castor <castor.kari at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> ----------------------- Sender:       American Dialect Society
>> <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> Poster:       Kari Castor
>> <castor.kari at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Temperature Stated As a "Negative"
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> -------
>>
>> Just another midwesterner chiming in that "negative so-many" is common
>> usage around these parts.
>> Kari
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 1:58 PM, M Covarrubias <mcovarru at purdue.edu>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       M Covarrubias <mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU>
>>> Subject:      Re: Temperature Stated As a "Negative"
>>>
>>> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> --------
>>>
>>> all of my midwestern life i've switched between three options:
>>>
>>> minus-#
>>> negative-#
>>> # -below
>>>
>>> i think i say 'minus-#' most often. but i guess i haven't counted.
>>>
>>> michael
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jan 15, 2009, at 2:09 PM, Barbara Need wrote:
>>>
>>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> > -----------------------
>>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> > Poster:       Barbara Need <bhneed at GMAIL.COM>
>>> > Subject:      Re: Temperature Stated As a "Negative"
>>> >
>>> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> --------
>>> >
>>> > What is correct? Minus? Negative five sounds OK to me--but I've lived
>>> > in the Midwest much of my life.
>>> >
>>> > Barbara
>>> >
>>> > Barbara Need
>>> >
>>> > On 15 Jan 2009, at 12:24 PM, Doug Harris wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> I've heard this a couple of times recently, once from someone in
>>> >> Nebraska, once from a CNN
>>> >> presenter who _may_ have been in or from the midwest:
>>> >> A below-zero Fahrenheit temperature reported as, say, _negative 15_.
>>> >> I tried to convince my Nebraska friend (who's also lived in Iowa and
>>> >> ND) that that terminology
>>> >> isn't correct, but she's continued using it.
>>> >> Is that phrasing as uncommon as I suspect? Is it specific to a
>>> >> certain geography?
>>> >> dh
>>> >
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>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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>>
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>>



Dr M Lynne Murphy
Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language
Arts B135
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QN

phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com

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