Date:  Thu, 7 Dec 1995 21:09:37 -0500

From:  TERRY IRONS <t.irons[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MOREHEAD-ST.EDU>

Subject: Re: Labov (fwd)



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Terry Lynn Irons    t.irons[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]morehead-st.edu

Voice Mail:       (606) 783-5164

Snail Mail:       UPO 604 Morehead, KY 40351

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Dear Don,



After a story about my work with LANCS materials appeared in a Lexington

paper, I just received a letter from a Bob Rennington (sp?) who has

worked on Kentucky place names and he mentioned you along with Fred and

Ravin as people's work he has followed. He's going to look me up, and I

wondered what might be a connection. Let me know.



I AM MAKING THIS PERSONAL LETTER PUBLIC FOR A REASON IN THE AGE OF NEWT



This letter is a follow up on my attack on Labov. I tried to work this

out as a letter to post to ADS but I thought better of it for once.



Now that I have thought about it twice, I am posting it.



Labov has gotten a lot of money from our government for the study of

language, probably much more than Chomsky has ever even thought about.

(I have looked into this question.) Projects on language variation and

change and a new project on language variation in America have been

funded by the NEH program on Reference Materials, and yet I know of no

materials from these projects having been made available to the scholarly

public interested in these ideas. Do you? Articles written by him and

his students mention these grants and that's about it. The data ain't

around for other people to look at. I pay taxes and that's my beef.



At the same time, DARE and LAMSAS (forget everything I said about it) are

being squeezed for money, and yet both projects have produced materials

that other scholars can use. Before you jump to any conclusions, you

need to know that Labov has had a project for about a quarter of a mil

funded for this and the next fiscal year, even as the rest of the budget

squabble continues. I wonder if the basis for this survey of English in

North America will be different from the phone project. By the way,

where are the results of the phone survey project? We paid for them.

I'd like to see them.



Terry











(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)

Terry Lynn Irons    t.irons[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]morehead-st.edu

Voice Mail:       (606) 783-5164

Snail Mail:       UPO 604 Morehead, KY 40351

(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)