"Daniel James" <wastebas
...@nospam.aaisp.org> wrote in message
...
> In article <
news:PMednTlMsfclEsfcRVn-rw@gbronline.com>, Raymond S. Wise
> wrote something I just had to take issue with:
> > I suspect that you're the sort of person who would insist that "ain't,"
> > "gonna," and "wunst" are not words. But they are, indeed, words.
> "Word" can mean many things, and means different things to different
> people in different contexts. To some a word has to be pronounceable. To
> others a word has to have a recognized (or, at least, recognizeable)
> meaning. In some contexts "gnmph", "spuffle", "splurgulatrix", and
> "toast" are all equally good words. In other contexts a word is a 16-bit
> binary number. None of this makes 0100111101111001 Standard English.
> I think it was pretty clear from the question that the poster was asking
> whether "predominately" was considered Standard English.
I've come to the conclusion that the use of "a word" or "a real word" in
alt.english.usage and alt.usage.english for what I would call "a standard
English usage" is as questionable as using "galaxy" in a Usenet newsgroup
frequented by amateur astronomers when one has in mind a "solar system." The
person using "galaxy" in that fashion may in fact know what a "galaxy" is
according to astronomical terminology, and may be aware that he is using a
popular usage which is very different, but it is also quite possible that he
is confused as to what constitutes a "galaxy."
A person who uses "a word" or "a real word" in this newsgroup may have in
mind "a standard English usage" but it is also quite possible that he does
not understand that the English language is divided into standard dialects
and nonstandard dialects. He may indeed think that "ain't," "gonna," and
"wunst" are not English words--and I mean the English language, not a
standard dialect of English.
Similarly, a person who uses "slang" in these newsgroups may have a good
understanding of what linguists and lexicographers mean by slang, and may be
using "slang" in the common sense of "informal language," or he may be
utterly ignorant of what linguists and lexicographers mean by "slang" and
may not understand the difference between informal usage and slang.
It's my opinion that many of the common terms which ordinary people use when
speaking of language distort their thinking about language. I recently had
the experience of discussing the double negative (negative concord) with a
friend of mine in a French conversation group. I tried to convince her that
"I can't get no satisfaction" does not mean that the person is getting
satisfaction, that two negatives do not make a positive in dialects which
habitually use the double negative. I made it clear that I was talking about
a nonstandard dialect, and I cannot believe that she would actually
understand a stranger saying "I ain't got no dog" to mean that the fellow
had a dog, but I believe that the usage of such terms as "bad English" has
distorted her thinking about nonstandard English, to the extent that, in
some rather mysterious way, she believes that two negatives make a positive
even in dialects which use the double negative. If she had been taught about
standard and nonstandard dialects, and had been taught about negative
concord, and, most importantly, had been taught that all dialects spoken by
native speakers of a language, without exception, follow rules of grammar,
she would have a less mixed-up view of the whole matter.
> Now, I have to say that if I were editing a piece of text I would
> probably "correct" it to "predominantly" without a second thought ... but
> according to the NSOED "predominately" has beed a recognized alternative
> for "predominantly" (for which it is thought originally to have been an
> error) since the 16th century.
> That doesn't mean that you would gain any marks for using it in
> schoolwork, though. I'd definitely rate it as "non standard".
> BTW: What does "wunst" mean?
A dialectal variant of "once," as another person in this thread answered.
--
Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com
