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Subject:Re: Dictionaries From:Karen Kay <karenk -at- NETCOM -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 27 Jan 1994 14:47:51 -0800
Stephen Bernhardt said:
> What distinguishes Merriam
> Webster from some other dictionary publishers is that they do their own
> research, using traditional lexicography. That's more than can be said
> for American Heritage.
Can you explain this further?
> American Heritage is fun to reead for their usage panel, pompous buttheads
> who sit in judgement on how the rest of us abuse the language. Their
> pronouncements lead to uninterpretable data--if 43% of the panel objects
> to a usage, what are we to conclude??
That it's a borderline usage. Maybe it's because I'm a linguist,
but I like the usage panel and have felt them to be pretty accurate.
