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

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:32 AM +0000 1/17/10, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>Funny I've never heard anyone say "What register do you speak"?
>They might answer "I''m a registered Democrat.
>
>

And if you asked a random person "What fricative did you just use?"
they might punch you in the mouth or ignore you--so we should give up
referring to fricatives, stops, and laterals and just call them all
consonants.  Or sounds.  Or letters.

>
>Perhaps we should be more scientific and call ourselves the
>"American Register Society".  But I think we'd be making ARS's of
>ourselves.

Um, Tom, if you actually *read* the messages prompted by yours,
including the one you include below or the wiki entries posted by
Robin, you'd see that *nobody* except you is claiming that "register"
is a more scientific name for "dialect", anymore than "collie" is a
more scientific name for "dog".  If anything, "register" is a more
scientific name for "speech style".  Register is one of the ways in
which language use varies; regional or social variation are others.
"What register are you speaking in?" would be a sensible question but
(surprise!) only to someone who is familiar with the term; the answer
might be "formal", "informal", "colloquial", but not "Appalachian" or
"Southern" or "Midlands", since those are dialects but not registers.

LH

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