League Association. 0 ▲ languagehat.com 27 minutes ago · Culture · hide Richard Hershberger has been doing an extraordinarily interesting series of Facebook posts on the history of baseball, and this one has a Hattic focus on language (the image is of an article, “Some Plainly Told Truths Concerning the National Game,” from the Cleveland Leader of November 13, 1876): 150 years ago in baseball: the “League Association.” This is an excerpt from a post-season review with some frankly pretty solid critiques of the National League’s first season. From our perspective we know that the NL will go on to be a great success, but here in 1876 this is not at all obvious. That, however, is not what I want to talk about. Note, rather, the construction of calling it the “League Association.” This is, again from our modern perspective, very weird, and shows an interesting linguistic development. “Association” was (and is) a neutral word for an organization. The organization’s name will also specify what it is an association of. The first organization of baseball clubs… Commenting on Bubbles has been removed. Why? If you want to talk about this post, write to the author, use the comments on their blog if it has them, or reply with a "RE:" post on your own blog. Suggestions? feedback@bubbles.town
