Date: Mon, 15 Jan 1996 22:01:12 -0500

From: Virginia Clark vpclark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MOOSE.UVM.EDU

Subject: Re: myths about language



At 02:42 PM 1/15/96 -0800, you wrote:

A few years ago I had a list of myths about language that I used to begin

my semester in Intro to Ling. I had taken quite a few from the first

page of somebody's (work?)book, and made additions. Now I can't find it.



Can you help me out? Most of these were short, such as



Never end a sentence with a preposiiton

We acquire languaguage from out parents and caregivers only

People used to speak better English than they do now

Redundancy has no place in English

English is easier for children to learn than Chinese



Thanks and Cheers,

Thomas L. Clark

tlc[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]nevada.edu







Oh--*that* list. Sorry to be slow in replying. It's the second article

(Harvey A. Daniels' "Nine Ideas about Languagae") in the fifth edition of

_Language: Introductory Readings_, edited by Clark (me), Eschholz, and

Rosa; St. Martin's , 1994. It also appeared in the fouth edition. The

article is actually a chapter from Daniels' excellent book _Famous Last

Words: The American Language Crisis Reconsidered_. 1983. Southern

Illinois University Press.



I hope that's the list you want.



Virginia Clark

University of Vermont