[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE][AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]|Bryan Gick Department of Linguistics
bgick[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]pantheon.yale.edu Yale University
'/ (203)772-2549 and Haskins Laboratories
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Date: Tue, 4 Mar 1997 12:23:13 +0000
From: Aaron Drews aaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]LING.ED.AC.UK
Subject: It's
On Mon, 3 Mar 1997, Michael Montgomery wrote:
}Dear ADSers:
}
}Has anyone ever collected undergraduate malapropisms on grammar tests?
}Here's an example to add to the list, from a mid-term exam taken last
}week:
}
} "_It's_ is a contraption of _it_ and _is_."
}
}Indeed! What other contraptions are our students learning about in our
}courses??
Well, I went to a Catholic university, so we didn't learn much
about contraptions in class. :)
--Aaron
___________________________________________________________________________
Aaron E. Drews aaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ling.ed.ac.uk
Supervised Postgraduate Student http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~aaron
The University of Edinburgh +44 (0)131 650-3485
Department of Linguistics fax: +44 (0)131 650-3962
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Date: Tue, 4 Mar 1997 08:34:40 +0000
From: "E.W. Gilman" egilman[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]WEBSTER.M-W.COM
Subject: contraption/contraction
For those who find the above to be a surprising lapsus calami, I
offer the following version of _contraction_ that I just found in my
files:
SMERSH is a contradiction of 'Smiert Spionam'...--beginning of
chapter 4 of Ian Fleming's "From Russia with Love", some unidentified
paperback edition.
E.W.Gilman
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Date: Tue, 4 Mar 1997 07:47:54 +0000
From: Michael Ravnitzky MikeRav[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IX.NETCOM.COM
Subject: Military Technical Reports about Dialect(s)
DO YOU WANT A LIST OF MILITARY TECHNICAL REPORTS ON THE SUBJECT OF
DIALECT and DIALECTS?
You can get a list of [largely unpublished] military technical
reports on Dialect and related topics. Many of these reports have
been locked away for various bureaucratic reasons and have not been put
into the public domain.
Here is the subject keyword with which you can obtain a LIST of
several dozen military technical reports on Dialects and related
subjects from the Defense Technical Information Center, a government
agency. [see below]
KEYWORD:
Dialect
Dialects
IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not bother using the DTIC web site--in a nutshell,
it is worthless because the web site omits most of the two million
technical reports in the DTIC collection. [Most of these reports are
NOT, repeat NOT, repeat NOT in the NTIS collection, and have been
unavailable to the public.] Send a letter instead--you will get much
better results.
The fee is likely to be free or only a few bucks. You probably want to
include a statement in the letter such as *I agree to pay reasonable
fees associated with this request. Please notify me if the cost will
exceed $25.*, so that they won't delay the processing of the request.
Remember, they WILL try to dissuade you from asking for such a list. If
they send you a letter, and you do not respond, they will withdraw your
request and you will not get your information.
Here is a form letter to use for your request:
To: Defense Technical Information Center
Attn: DTIC-RSM [Kelly D. Akers, FOIA Manager]
8725 John J. Kingman Road, Suite 0944
Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-6128 USA
Phone: 703-767-9194
Dear Ms. Akers:
I request the following records under the provisions of the Freedom of
Information Act:
A computer generated technical report bibliography of reports on the
subject[s]/keyword[s] of:
________________ OR _________________ OR ________________ OR
_______________ OR _________________ OR _______________
Please send me this bibliography for all years in your computerized
index.
This is a request for DTIC records, please don't forward my request to
NTIS. Please include both classified and unclassified records in your
search. If any of the records are classified, please review them for
release, or the release of nonsensitive portions.
I am an individual, noncommercial requester and this request is not
being made for commercial purposes. [OR YOU MIGHT INSTEAD INDICATE
DIFFERENTLY IF YOU ARE A COMMERCIAL REQUESTER, OR AN EDUCATIONAL
OR
SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION, OR A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE MEDIA] I also agree
to pay up to $25 for reasonable fees associated with this request.
Sincerely,
______________
Hope you find this a useful resource.
Michael Ravnitzky
MikeRav[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ix.netcom.com
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Date: Tue, 4 Mar 1997 09:13:43 -0500
From: "Claudio R. Salvucci" salvucci[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]NETAXS.COM
Subject: Re: official lg
forth! We had a wonderful mock-debate in there today-- I "teach" the
subject every year now, finding that students are fascinated, and have
discovered that the real way to win converts is not to teach it at all
but to let them do it (obvious, I guess, but I had to try my way
first, as always). I figure that no socioloinguistics class should
turn out students who are unprepared to debate English-Only and
Ebonics in public.
I sincerely hope Peter Patrick does not intend the word "oppose" where he
writes "debate". There is no intrinsic reason why a linguist by definition
must oppose English-only or standard language pedagogy. It is perfectly
justifiable to work under the scientific notion that languages are
value-neutral with respect to each other, while still accepting that
certain languages/dialects have different social values.
The single greatest force of assimilation in this country is its language;
to not compel immigrants to learn English as my parents did, is to sentence
them to a lifetime of exclusion from the political and cultural life of
this nation.
-Claudio
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Date: Tue, 4 Mar 1997 09:38:40 -0500
From: "M. Lynne Murphy" 104LYN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MUSE.ARTS.WITS.AC.ZA
Subject: Re: official lg
From: "Claudio R. Salvucci" salvucci[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]NETAXS.COM
The single greatest force of assimilation in this country is its language;
to not compel immigrants to learn English as my parents did, is to sentence
them to a lifetime of exclusion from the political and cultural life of
this nation.
there's a weird ellipsis (weird in terms of supporting the
argument) here--
to not compel immigrants to learn english as my parents did (learn
english) is to sentence them...
but not...
to not compel immigrants to learn english as my parent were
(compelled to learn english)
note that without compulsion (i.e. a law) they did learn it. there
was compulsion in terms of socio-economic factors. those still exist-
-there aren't a heck of a lot of opportunities for non-english
speaking monolinguals (and perhaps too many for english-speaking
monolinguals!), so people are still compelled to learn english (and
do). i've never heard of anyone being denied access to english by
the government. so, what's the problem?
lynne
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