If one were to study dialect variation and find that socioeconomic status really did correlate strongly with dialect features, there'd be no choice but to use class terminology. Yes, terms like 'middle-class' and 'working-class' imply value judgments for a lot of people, but not, we hope, for scholars doing objective research. The same thing happens for 'standard' and 'nonstandard'. The reason people keep looking for new labels for 'edited American English' etc. etc. etc. is that it's so easy to associate 'standard' with 'good' and 'nonstandard' with 'bad'. It's a good exercise in critical thinking to keep reminding people that terms like these can have objective value, and there is no need to inject value judgments. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Johanna Rubba Associate Professor, Linguistics English Department, California Polytechnic State University One Grand Avenue • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 Tel. (805)-756-2184 • Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone. 756-2596 • E-mail: [log in to unmask] • Home page: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/