Date:  Tue, 9 Dec 1997 11:03:10 -0600
From:  Thomas Creswell <creswell[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CROWN.NET>
Subject: Re: Openness

AAllan wrote:
>
> Let's not bite the hand that extends itself to us in friendship.
>
> For decades, members of ADS have worried that there aren't enough of us.
> Membership has been a little over 500 for the past 20 years, and before that
> it was even lower. That's not enough to conduct all the important research
> that needs to be done; not even enough to make a full program for all of our
> meetings. As we grow older, some of us wonder whether there will be much of a
> new generation to take our place.
>
> We also worry that our important discoveries don't get enough attention. We're
> reconsidering the publication arrangements for our two journals because they
> reach such a limited audience. We lament that "usageasters" (to use Tom
> Creswell's word) ignore our findings about actual usage; we despair at
> mistaken popular notions about American dialects (well, dInIs doesn't despair,
> he studies them) and the origins of "hot dog" or "Big Apple."
>
> And we worry about funding for our research. We need to convince people
> outside our field that we deserve money for great surveys of vocabulary like
> the Dictionary of American Regional English, of pronunciation like the
> Phonological Atlas of North America, or of everything in a region like LAGS
> and LAMSAS, as well as for our individual endeavors. We also need to convince
> deans and department heads of the importance of time and money for our
> projects.
>
> Do we refuse to let non-majors into the courses we teach? Do we speak and
> write only for our learned peers, refusing to offer talks to the general
> public or articles to newspapers and magazines? If so, then we have only
> ourselves to blame that no one else cares or listens.
>
> But instead . . .
>
> If on ADS-L we often need to point out that DARE has the answer: what an
> affirmation of the value of the millions of public and private money spent on
> it, and what a useful reminder of the value of turning to that book for
> answers.
>
> If we have to remind others that an important article on a particular topic
> recently appeared in American Speech,
>
> that's a useful reminder of the value of consulting it regularly, and of
> belonging to ADS in order to get it.
>
> And if we have to explain basic concepts and facts to outsiders - well, most
> of the population consists of outsiders to our field. If we can talk only to
> ourselves, we're pretty lonely. Besides, some of the most important advances
> in a field come from attempts to explain and justify it to the rest of the
> world. We can't sit on our laurels but must rethink what we do.
>
> Some of the most active people in our field are not on the list, or drop off
> from time to time. That's fine. We all have to closet ourselves now and then
> to get our work done. But when we do participate in the list, and when we open
> it to all who are interested, I think we perform an important service to our
> field too.
>
> - Allan Metcalf

Allan,

I agree with your well-argued sentiments. But I must decline taking
credit for Tom Clark's (the originator of this thread) coinage
_usageasters_.

Tom