LINGUIST List 13.2779

Mon Oct 28 2002

Qs: Pedagogical Grammar Course, "Balding" as Adj

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. amy hazelrigg, Pedagogical grammar course for ESL teachers
2. Scott J. Baxter, use of the word balding

I am developing a course on pedagogical grammar for prospective ESL
teachers who are graduate and advanced undergraduate students. If you
have favorite readings on this topic, including collections, please send
me the references, including publisher's name. Many thanks!

Amy Hazelrigg

Dear linguists,

I have been trying to find out if there is agreement on the
acceptability of the usage of the word balding as an adjective meaning
becoming bald as in a phrase like _a spare, already balding man in his
mid-thirties_ within contemporary (American) English.

The 1980 edition of the American Heritage Dictionary reports on the
results of their use panel about the acceptability of this word and
reports that 55 percent of the panel approved of such a usage. They
quote Isaac Asimov as saying he finds it "distasteful but necessary"
and Katherine Anne Porter who says it is "enirely vulgar."

I have checked multiple dictionaries including the most recent
American Heritage, Merriam Webster, the Longman learner's dictionary,
and the Cambridge learner's dictionary and can find no contemporary
dictionary that seems to disapprove of balding as an adjective. But
Denning and Leben's (1995) English Vocabulary Elements Oxford: OUP
lists it as a word that has variation in its usage. Does anyone have
any insight they can share with me on this?

best wishes,

Scott

*****************************************
 Scott J. Baxter
 Purdue University
 Department of English
 500 Oval Drive
 West Lafayette IN 47907-2038
 USA
 http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~baxters/