Re: History of French

From: Nathan Sanders (nsanders.DIE.SPAM_at_wso.williams.edu)
Date: 09/24/04 

Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 16:40:54 GMT

In article <cj1hcd$3co4@odds.stat.purdue.edu>,
 hrubin@odds.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) wrote:

> >It doesn't really matter, since the abstract language isn't real.
> >It's just a convenient description for a group of similar idiolects.
> >The person defining it can deal with variation however they want to.
>
> This is why students cannot communicate and cannot
> understand ideas today.

Knowing or not knowing the prestige dialect doesn't affect one's
understanding of ideas.

> The current teachers seem
> to be taking Mr. Sanders's view, that there is no
> worthwhile standard language,

I never said anything about "worth". The prestige dialect is of
course worthwhile to learn, as it opens up opportunities in society.
As Des said, hopefully no one is disputing that.

> and whatever a speaker
> uses is correct.

*FOR THEIR IDIOLECT*. You're inferring way too much from "correct".
A better adjective would be "exists".

Nathan 

-- 
Nathan Sanders
Linguistics Program       nsanders@wso.williams.edu                           
Williams College          http://wso.williams.edu/~nsanders
Williamstown, MA 01267

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