Date:  Mon, 18 Dec 1995 12:22:18 -0500

From:  "Dennis R. Preston" <preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]PILOT.MSU.EDU>

Subject: Re: Pogo



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.