Date: Sun, 7 Jan 1996 16:45:27 CST

From: Luanne von Schneidemesser lvonschn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]FACSTAFF.WISC.EDU

Subject: Re: budge



In Message Sun, 7 Jan 1996 10:30:00 CST, Tom Murray TEM[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]KSUVM.KSU.EDU writes:





3. I always thought *budge* was a negative-bias word, so that sentences like "T

he old man in the rocking chair hasn't budged all day" were grammatical while s

entences like "The old man in the rocking chair budged all day" weren't. But r

ecently the Head of my department wrote the sentence "We may have to budge on t

hat one" in describing a particularly ticklish political situation. Does "We m

ay have to budge on that one" sound as marginal to anyone else as it does to me

? Is *budge* really not a negative-bias word?



My children started saying, in a different sense but used positively, "He

budged!" when they started school, for 'he cut in, he cut in line in front

of me'. At first I tried to correct them since this wasn't in my

vocabulary, but I soon realized that all the kids in their school (now

expanded to three different schools) use this in Madison.



Luanne





Luanne von Schneidemesser, (608) 263-2748

DARE, 6129 Helen C. White Hall, 600 North Park, Madison, WI 53706

lvonschn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]facstaff.wisc.edu