:-) mostly -- McWhorter on "standard English"

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:34 AM +0000 1/16/10, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>Register?  Not nearly as clear as "dialect"

Actually "register" is a lot clearer than "dialect" if you want to
refer to register.   Your observation is like saying we shouldn't
refer to lymphoma because it's not nearly as clear as cancer or that
we shouldn't refer to fricatives or stops because that's not nearly
as clear as consonants.

LH

>Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+
>see truespel.com phonetic spelling
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>  Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster: Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton2 at BTINTERNET.COM>
>>  Subject: Re: :-) mostly -- McWhorter on "standard English"
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  > Well, maybe we need to start putting "dialect" in after "Standard
>>  > English". I think I might start putting "Standard American Written
>>  > English dialect" in my composition syllabus to emphasize its
>>  > linguistic parity with Appalachian dialects, Southern dialects, etc.
>>  >
>>  > ---Amy West
>>
>>  I'd concur with this, Amy, but reword as "Standard American Written English
>>  Register."
>>
>>  The wording of the syllabus description would, of course, be
>>  self-referential, being written in SAWER.
>>
>>  Robin Hamilton
>>
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