Pullum at MIT this afternoon

[Ann Burlingham]

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 7:34 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Pullum at MIT this afternoon
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>>       Education is not promoted through encouraging educated Americans to
>>       believe, falsely, that their command of their own native language is
>>       flawed and inadequate.
>
> I'd like to know exactly what "educated" means here and which subset of
> "educated Americans" is being criticized "falsely."
>
> Without the word "educated," however, the statement is a fine example of the
> "linguistician's fallacy," a name I have the honor to introduce right now.

I suspect that the word "educated" is not there by accident.

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