Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 00:48:02 -0400

From: "Bethany K. Dumas" dumasb[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UTK.EDU

Subject: Apples & Oranges



On Tue, 2 Sep 1997, Barry A. Popik wrote:



snip

RANDOM HOUSE HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN SLANG, H-O

by Jonathan Lighter



This is obviously an important and major work, the second volume to be

published. My complaints are more about what this is not than what it is.

David Shulman objects to the number of citations after what he considers

the first and most valuable ones. However, I'm not upset by TOO MANY

citations--better than too few! Another person on this list commented that

Lighter uses responses from students at the University of Tennessee (where

he's based); again, if there are many citations, I don't have a problem with

this.



Time does not permit setting the record straight at length, but please

note these points:



1. This IS a slang dictionary. It is not nor was it ever intended to be a

book of Americanisms.

2. Much has been made of the fact that some citations come from students

at the U. of Tennessee. in fact, most of the citations were collected as

Jon read in the New York Public Library, misspending his youth as

thoroughly as anyone I know. A high percentage of citations come from

individuals on the Knoxville campus now because Jon has been in residence

here since 1974. He and I arrived at the same time. His M.A. thesis was

the Amerian Speech issue on WWI slang; his doctoral dissertation, which I

had the pleasure of "directing," was the letter "A" of the dictionary.



I hope that individuals who can add to the material included in the first

ed. will share their information with Jon. Write him c/o the English Dept

(address below). Jon himself has contributed a lot to the OED in that way.



Thanks,

Bethany



Bethany K. Dumas, J.D., Ph.D. Applied Linguistics, Language & Law

Department of English EMAIL: dumasb[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]utk.edu

311/1117 McClung Tower (423) 974-6965, (423) 974-6926 (FAX)

University of Tennessee Editor, Language in the Judicial Process:

Knoxville, TN 37996-0430 USA http://ljp.la.utk.edu

[Sept-Dec '97, Dep't of Linguistics/470 ICC/Georgetown University/

Washington, D.C. 20057/202-687-6029]