Date:  Wed, 10 Dec 1997 13:56:26 -0500
From:  "Dennis R. Preston" <preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]PILOT.MSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Posts and Getting Along

Well, Fred, you ought to come sit at some of the bars I go to. Lexicography
(and lexicology) rarely come up. How them critters talk funny over there
(construed broadly, it goes without saying) does pretty often.

DInIs

PS: There has been a Dicionary Society (DSNA) for some time; surely it is
the 'right' place for those principally concerned with these matters
(although I agree that lexicon should hardly be excluded from ADS or for
that matter its publications or general concerns of dialectology and/or
sociolinguistics).
On a testier note (though accepting full reponsibility for our need to make
what we do known and make how it is relevant better known), I would not
like to see any scientific field's principal work defined (or redefined) by
resetting (or abandoning) its goals to meet popular notions.

>On Wed, 10 Dec 1997, Timothy C. Frazer wrote:
>
>> Maybe what we need is a not a new ADS-L list, but one that addresses the
>> needs of many of the non-professionals--something lke "words and phrase
>> queries." I would like to see such queries elsewhere, and ADS-L confined
>> to a discussion of reserach issues in dialectology and soicolinguistics.
>
>
>Speaking as someone who is not a professional linguist, but who has a
>strong interest in certain aspects of linguistics, I would like to make
>the following observation: Historically, the American Dialect Society and
>the journal American Speech have included lexicology and lexicography
>among their areas of interest. Today, the interests of ADS members are
>predominantly dialectology and sociolinguistics, but, to me at least, it
>would be a shame if lexicology and lexicography were excluded altogether
>from the American Dialect Society, American Speech, and ADS-L.
>
>It is worth noting that, if the American Dialect Society wishes to
>maintain its links to sources of publicity and funding such as the popular
>press, excluding lexicology and lexicography would be shooting itself in
>the foot, since these areas are of greater interest to the public than
>are dialectology and sociolinguistics.
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Fred R. Shapiro               Coeditor (with Jane Garry)
> Associate Librarian for Public Services   TRIAL AND ERROR: AN OXFORD
>  and Lecturer in Legal Research      ANTHOLOGY OF LEGAL STORIES
> Yale Law School               Oxford University Press, 1997
> e-mail: fred.shapiro[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]yale.edu        ISBN 0-19-509547-2
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736