4.0168 Visiting: Was Idioms (4/74)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 12 Jun 90 22:52:43 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0168. Tuesday, 12 Jun 1990.
(1) Date: Mon, 04 Jun 90 10:50:55 EDT (25 lines)
From: Jan Eveleth <EVELETH@YALEVM>
Subject: To Visit
(2) Date: Mon, 04 Jun 90 12:11 PDT (13 lines)
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 4.0159 Idioms
(3) Date: Tue, 05 Jun 90 08:41:41 EDT (9 lines)
From: Clarence Brown <CB@PUCC>
Subject: visit with
(4) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 90 09:52 EST (27 lines)
From: Sarah Jones <SAAJONES@IUBACS>
Subject: Re: 4.0159 ("visit with")
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 04 Jun 90 10:50:55 EDT
From: Jan Eveleth <EVELETH@YALEVM>
Subject: To Visit
In Maine where I grew up, "visiting" was something you did with people
out of town and usually involved an overnight stay and at least 1/2 hour
in the car to get there. We visited with people we didn't routinely
have an opportunity to see.
After moving to Indiana, the word took on new meaning--particularly after
hiring a native Kentuckian. In Indiana, "visiting" was usually done in
your neighbors' kitchen or on their porch and frequently included
something to drink and munch on. My Kentuckian however would use the
word synonymously for any type of conversation--including business
meetings. An appointment with his manager to discuss job evaluations
was "a visit"; a conversation in the hall with another staff member was
recounted as "I was just visiting with Sam Hill..."; a request to talk
about pay was made by asking "I'd like to talk about my wages. Do you
have time to visit tomorrow?" Appointments were visits, parties were
visits, conversations were visits.
Certainly, not everyone from Kentucky "visits" so liberally.
Nonetheless, I'm glad to be back in New England where an appointment is
business and I can visit my family in Maine after sitting in the car for
9 hours.
--Jan Eveleth
eveleth@yalevm
Yale University
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------198---
Date: Mon, 04 Jun 90 12:11 PDT
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 4.0159 Idioms; Pronunciation (2/42)
for Philip Taylor: I think a lineup in the US is the few people in the
police identification room, the suspects, from which the witness are to
choose the one they think committed whatever. I have been to one. The
lineup is also the team 's ordering for baseball, the order in which
they come to bat. Otherwise, it is a line that you stand in, or line up
in for tickets, entry, etc. We stand in l ine and on line, which is
what queuing is. Visit with is perhaps a rural Midwesternism, one or
both. I never heard it in the East, or West. Maybe it is Southern or
Swestern. It probably also hearkens back to before the automobile. Yrs
Kessler at UCLA
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------15----
Date: Tue, 05 Jun 90 08:41:41 EDT
From: Clarence Brown <CB@PUCC>
Subject: visit with
The phrase "visit with," discussed in a recent submission, is a
Southernism and could often be heard in the speech of Lyndon Baines
Johnson. In South Carolina we used to "visit with" neighbors wherever
they were encountered-- at the grocery store or the country club--and
not necessarily at home. Yall come. Clarence Brown. Comp Lit.
Princeton.
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------32----
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 90 09:52 EST
From: Sarah Jones <SAAJONES@IUBACS>
Subject: Re: 4.0159 ("visit with")
Regarding the connotations associated with "to visit with" in American
English.....
Where I come from (a small town in east central Iowa), there isn't a
particular sense of intimacy or closeness connected with "visiting with"
someone. Friendliness, neighborliness, yes, but no special intimacy.
Actually, "to visit" has two meanings back home. One refers to the
physical act of going to another person's house in order to see them on
a social basis. The other names the chit-chat that goes on while you're
there. This second sense can occur without the preposition "with";
alternatively, the expression including "with" has only one meaning--that
of the chit-chat.
While this chatting occurs between people who may have a dimension of
closeness or intimacy in their relationship, the content of the chatting
is not intimate. That is, matters of special personal or political
importance, or matters touching on anything remotely controversial, are
actively avoided.
Sarah Jones
Indiana University
SAAJONES@IUBACS.BITNET