On 23/09/2007, at 7:17 AM, Thomas Lord wrote:
I think that I understand you to see "wtf" as a profanity, directed
in this case at you. My professional linguistic community is far
less strict and very little is considered profane -- so apparently I
am sometimes insensitive when crossing boundaries to other
linguistic communities.
Actually, I find this whole furor over what language is appropriate to this list quite interesting, more interesting perhaps than the debate in which it appeared.
The question it raises is how are we, and this space in which we speak, constructed? How does it provide opportunities to enforce/ resist forms of conduct?