This file is an excerpt
from the September 1997 version of Mark Israel's AUE FAQ.
The file was re-generated Friday 23 January 2004 01:36 GMT.
To see the full AUE FAQ at Mark Israel's Web site, click here.
WELCOME TO ALT.USAGE.ENGLISH!
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alt.usage.english is a newsgroup where we discuss the English
language (and also occasionally other languages). We discuss
how particular words, phrases, and syntactic forms are used; how
they originated; and where in the English-speaking world they're
prevalent. (All this is called "description".) We also discuss
how we think they *should* be used ("prescription").
alt.usage.english is for everyone, *not* only for linguists,
native speakers, or descriptivists.