XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.books   
   From: b.scott@csuohio.edu   
      
   On Mon, 26 Aug 2013 18:49:12 +0200, Steve Hayes   
    wrote in   
    in   
   rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.books:   
      
   > On Mon, 26 Aug 2013 02:31:13 -0400, "Brian M. Scott"    
   > wrote:   
      
   >>On Mon, 26 Aug 2013 07:00:36 +0200, Steve Hayes   
   >> wrote in   
   >> in   
   >>rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.books:   
      
   >>[...]   
      
   >>> That misuse of "momentarily" by *airline* staff, of all   
   >>> people, is the most stupid and irresponsible language   
   >>> error I have ever heard. The airlines really ought to   
   >>> train their staff better.   
      
   >>Ah, a follower of Miss Thistlebottom.  There is perhaps some   
   >>excuse for that if one is in the business of teaching formal   
   >>writing, but from a linguistic point of view it’s nonsense.   
      
   >>Languages change, and usage ultimately determines what is   
   >>and is not an error.  This sense is sufficiently widespread   
   >>in U.S. usage that its use in U.S. varieties of English can   
   >>no longer be considered an error.   
      
   > When I first visited the US (in 1995) I had never heard of   
   > that usage. Fortunately I went there on a Russian   
   > airline, and not a US one, or I might have been unduly   
   > alarmed.   
      
   Only if you were likely to be unduly stupid.  Were you?   
      
   Brian   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)