DOTI (downgrading of text initialisms)

[Joel S. Berson]

At 11/29/2010 01:51 PM, Ronald Butters wrote:
>Did they merely continue on their way, or did they amble off?

I used "continue on their separate ways" to parallel Wilson's
narrative, but I'm willing to accept instruction on how that differs
from ambling.  Or am I missing some joke about psychiatrists?

Joel


>On Nov 29, 2010, at 10:51 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
> > At 11/28/2010 04:19 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >> And the American way is nothing new, regardless of race, etc. When I
> >> was a child East Texas in the late '30's, I was accustomed to hearing
> >> conversations like the following:
> >>
> >> A. "Hi yew? Pooty good."
> >> B. "Unh-hunh. *Yo'* mama-nim?"
> >> A."Dass nice."
> >> B. "Yay-uh. Sho' 'nuff."
> >>
> >> A and B continue on their separate ways, each still totally immersed
> >> in his own thoughts.
> >
> > OTOH (so I don't have to change the subject line), they were clearly
> > not psychiatrists, for whom the narrative would have been something like:
> >
> > A.  Ho. Yew pooty good.  How'm I?
> > B.  Dass nice. Yew pooty good too.
> > A. and/or B.   Yay-uh. Sho' 'nuff.
> >
> > A and B continue on their separate ways, each still totally immersed
> > in someone else's thoughts.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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