Date:  Sat, 24 Dec 1994 11:03:30 -0500

From:  "William A. Kretzschmar, Jr." <billk[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ATLAS.UGA.EDU>

Subject: Meetings



If I had been interested in preparing a long reply to Dennis, I might

have done a better job of responding point by point to his long

messages. But I have not thought it appropriate to write in such a

detailed way via email---perhaps I am old fashioned when I don't usually

write more than a screenful or two.



I would, however, like to make it clear that I have not argued that MLA

is a better home for the ADS meeting than LSA. I have also not argued

that "dialectology" should not be "linguistic". I have objected to the

obviousness of arguments in favor of meeting with the LSA, but there are

certainly arguments for doing so, and I appreciate their validity for

some ADS members. Some members, not all. The lexicographers to whom I

referred are people like Victoria Neufeldt, Mike Agnes, David Barnhart, and

David Jost, who have come regularly to MLA and ADS; I'm sure that other

lexicographers, like Tom Clark, may prefer to go elsewhere. Finally,

"emotional" reasons are as good as any other if they cause members to

attend or keep them from attending the annual meeting; they cannot just

be dismissed, just as my admitted feeling of alienation from LSA (though

I do read the odd variationist article or review in *Language*) is very

real even if not reasonable by some other people's standards. I do not

much like being set up as a straw man, though I suppose I asked for it.



Perhaps Tom Clark is right that we should have another mail ballot. This

time it could have three clear options spelled out: meet with LSA, meet

with MLA, meet separately in the spring. The whole membership, however,

has not been inclined to attend either MLA or LSA sessions for ADS. Of

course it is not reasonable to consider people who have been to ADS at

MLA as representative of those members who are likely to attend meetings

(because LSA-inclined members may not come there). Still, at various

meetings with ADS affiliation, including for example the Methods

conference, there seems to be a core of people who most often appear. I

believe that those people would still come to a separate meeting, and

that others in ADS would have a better opportunity to attend a separate

meeting than they would a meeting attached either to LSA or MLA. If ADS

needs to lean on some other organization (whichever that one might be),

that is too bad, and I don't believe that ADS needs to do that.



That's about my limit of two screens, maybe more like three!



Merry Christmas to all . . . .



Regards, Bill

******************************************************************************

Bill Kretzschmar         Phone:  706-542-2246

Dept. of English         FAX:   706-542-2181

University of Georgia      Internet: billk[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]hyde.park.uga.edu

Athens, GA 30602-6205      Bitnet:  wakjengl[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uga