marvelous

[Michael Newman]

Ken Sherrill (a CUNY poli-sci guy I met once) on Obama picking up on what is perceived as an upper class word:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/07/us-usa-campaign-obama-idUSBRE83501V20120407 


Obama's riff on Romney's use of the word "marvelous" to describe Representative Paul Ryan's budget plans carried a subtle message.

"It's a word you kind of associate with the upper class, and I think that the intention was to tweak Romney for being wealthy and, you know, sort of brought up in the kinds of circles where they would say ‘marvelous,'" said Kenneth Sherrill, a political science expert at New York's Hunter College.


Michael Newman
Associate Professor of Linguistics
Queens College/CUNY
michael.newman at qc.cuny.edu

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