Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 22:27:12 -0500
From: SETH SKLAREY crissiet[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IPOF.FLA.NET
Subject: Re: POGO STICK IT TO ME
WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND WE IS THEY (watered down educated correction???)
SETH
crissiet[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ipof.fla.net
Hmmmmmmmm. I wonder why some of the world's most complex grammatical and
phnological systems pesist among peoples with no formal education. You
would figure the water would have warshed them down the hill to pure
simplicity by now.
Dennis
preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]pilot.msu.edu
I just finished reading a compilation book of old Pogo cartoons; inclu-
ded is an interview with cartoonist Walt Kelly, who refers to his charac-
ters' ways of talking as "following the path of least resistance, like wa-
ter flowing down a hill." That's a pretty good description of the way
children and less educated people use language. They tend to make up words
that they figure should exist. In a way education tends to water down that
childlike tendency, and it kind of saddens me to see children grow up and
lose that childlike delight in playing with words and local yokels moving
to the big city and losing their regional idiosyncracies. Fortunately it
doesn't always happen.