Date:  Tue, 12 Sep 1995 17:02:10 -0700

From:  Dan Alford <dalford[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]S1.CSUHAYWARD.EDU>

Subject: Re: nuclear



Okay, Tom -- I don't know about anyone else, but you piqued my interest

the first time with "gravitational," and the second time moved me to

action. Can you explain this linguistic usage of the term? Since Whorf

has one or two unpublished papers on gravity in the Yale Archives, it

sounds like something he would have done, blending physics and

linguistics. Explain please. (Tho if you don't do it quickly I won't see

it until Monday.)



                    -- moonhawk



On Tue, 12 Sep 1995, tom creswell wrote:



> MDEU is not written with an audience made up specifically of linguists

> and other academics in mind. Its use of "gravitational" rather than "analogic"

> in describing the forces leading to such variant pronunciations as those

> under discussion is consistent with its aim toward a larger, less specialized,

> audience. It is also, moreover, indisputably "data based," being derived from

> a study of the more than 14 million citations, including pronunciation records, in

> the Merriam Webster citation file.

>