[Ads-l] to fly a sign

[Wilson Gray]

> I choose on the basis of contextual prosody.

An excellent point! You've given me much upon which to ponder!

On Fri, Dec 15, 2017 at 8:57 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> "-body" has one more syllable.
>
> I choose on the basis of contextual prosody.
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Dec 15, 2017 at 8:25 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > I'd have said "hold" or "display."
> >
> > Of course. And so would everybody* else. Normally, only watercraft fly a
> > special sign called an "ensign." One can only hope that "flying a sign"
> > doesn't become popular - or should that be, "doesn't catch on"?
> >
> > *Read somewhere that -body is being driven out by -one. So, purely "for
> > fee-U-N,"to use a phrase popular when mother was a girl; I've never heard
> > it, only heard _about_ it from my mother - I've decided to stop using
> -one
> > and to start using -body, there being no distinction of any kind between
> > them, in my idiolect. I don't think that there's any distinction between
> > the two, in any variety of BE. But...
> >
> > Youneverknow.
> >
> > On Fri, Dec 15, 2017 at 3:59 PM, Jonathan Lighter <
> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Kind of an unusual nuance of "fly."
> > >
> > > A reporter tells of a homeless woman who "flies a sign" asking for
> work.
> > >
> > > The video shows her holding her cardboard sign chest-high with both
> > hands.
> > >
> > > I'd have said "hold" or "display."
> > >
> > > JL
> > >
> > > --
> > > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> > truth."
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > -Wilson
> > -----
> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > -Mark Twain
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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