name, internationality

[Jeff Deby]

Salut les flingsteuses/eurs,

Interesting pre-note: the discussion of our name seems to be the most
traffic we've had ... hmmmm.

I don't see why something more prosaic wouldn't do: ALG, IALG, LGA or
ILGA (or is that the one Alice Freed already mentioned?).  There are
many organizations in linguistics like this (LSA (Lx Soc of America),
CLS (Chicago Lx Soc), AAAL (American Assn of Applied Lx).  I don't think
that we *need* an acronym, and I definitely cringe at cutesy or
forced-sounding ones.

As a further productive device, there's always the old Soviet-style
syllable blends like ComEcon, or like German KaDeWe (Kaufhof Des
Westens).  Though I myself can't come up with something suitable using
this for us, perhaps someone else can.  ALaGenI ( with Romance lg word
order) isn't very smooth, eh?

Question: if we have "international" in our title, does this mean we're
prepared to, say, have conferences not in the USA?  If not, would that
make us hypocritical or lip-servicing?  I don't want to see something
like the so-called "World Series" of baseball.  But please don't take
this as a dislike of an international stance (being Canadian, I'm all
too aware of the frustration instilled by unquestioningly USA-focussed
associations).  But food for thought.  My $0.02 (that's US$0.0014 --
<grin>) is that if we're gonna talk the talk, we have to walk the walk.

Auf wiederlesen,

Jeff
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff Deby
• E-mail: Jeff_Deby at bc.sympatico.ca
• Web: http://www.georgetown.edu/users/debyj/
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"To ask corporations to behave better by putting the interests of local
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