Philosophy
So, at a wonderful BBQ at YKW's place, the conversation turned to language. I mentioned that the short people had discovered MadLibs at the same time I was grading student papers, and this led me to think about parts of speech. I remarked how the adverbial form of words is disappearing from colloquial (and formal student written) English being replaced with the adjectival form -- "He writes bad" or "She runs slow" -- and how even people whom one would describe with the word "learned" (when used as an adjective with two syllables) now almost universally employ the word "quote" (a conjugated form of the verb) in place of the noun "quotation," as in "I found a great quote to support that point."
Gwydion, whose livelihood is language, remarked that it should be seen not as a degradation of language, but as a natural part of the evolution. Language is a living thing, he argued, alive and changing in the usage of the linguistic community and that there is a natural and proper pull between linguistic conservatives trying to maintain some sense of purity and the forces of linguistic selection introducing alterations into the way we speak.
This is, no doubt, true. But to play on the evolutionary metaphor, surely some mutations are advantageous and others not. Biologically, we spot successful adaptations through successful propagation, that is, if natural or sexual selection are aided by them. Should we use the same standard for linguistic changes? Is the suffix "ly" like the appendix, simply a useless relic of a former time? Is "quotation" a dinosaur that is rightly going extinct? Or is there reason to be protective of parts of speech for sake of clarity, eloquence, or some other linguistic virtue that may, always or in some cases only, stand above utility, simplicity, or whatever else it is that is spurring these changes?
Are all changes in language evolutionary or do some leave us with an inferior language?
- Grammar Curmudeons
Had a student ask yesterday about grammatical pet peeves. His was "irregardless." My big three are: 1) "Quote" used for "quotation." Quote is a verb. You quote someone. What you write down is not a quote, but a quotation. ...
- Novel Statements
One of the most amazing aspects of our linguistic faculties (and I don't mean Spanish professors) is our ability to create and understand entirely novel statements. It is one thing to be conditioned to respond to certain stimuli in linguistic ways....
- Language, Gender, And The Many
Wonderful questions this time around, folks. Thank you very much. Two good ones for today. Anne asks, "In Nigeria and parts of Cameroon, pidgin english only uses one gender to describe everyone. Men and women are both given the word man along with all...
- Spanish, Ebonics, And Bushisms: English As Whose National Language?
So we've got another case of conservatives trying to crack down on that creeping menace...the Spanish language. Public libraries in suburban Atlanta will no longer acquire adult fiction in Spanish because immigrants reading John Grisham is a threat...
- History Of The English Language, Animated
Have you ever tried to make sense of the English language? If you've taken courses on linguistics, logic or philosophy of language, you've learned that grammar is supposed to give us a formal understanding of the structure underlying any particular...
Philosophy
Evolution and Degradation of Language
So, at a wonderful BBQ at YKW's place, the conversation turned to language. I mentioned that the short people had discovered MadLibs at the same time I was grading student papers, and this led me to think about parts of speech. I remarked how the adverbial form of words is disappearing from colloquial (and formal student written) English being replaced with the adjectival form -- "He writes bad" or "She runs slow" -- and how even people whom one would describe with the word "learned" (when used as an adjective with two syllables) now almost universally employ the word "quote" (a conjugated form of the verb) in place of the noun "quotation," as in "I found a great quote to support that point."
Gwydion, whose livelihood is language, remarked that it should be seen not as a degradation of language, but as a natural part of the evolution. Language is a living thing, he argued, alive and changing in the usage of the linguistic community and that there is a natural and proper pull between linguistic conservatives trying to maintain some sense of purity and the forces of linguistic selection introducing alterations into the way we speak.
This is, no doubt, true. But to play on the evolutionary metaphor, surely some mutations are advantageous and others not. Biologically, we spot successful adaptations through successful propagation, that is, if natural or sexual selection are aided by them. Should we use the same standard for linguistic changes? Is the suffix "ly" like the appendix, simply a useless relic of a former time? Is "quotation" a dinosaur that is rightly going extinct? Or is there reason to be protective of parts of speech for sake of clarity, eloquence, or some other linguistic virtue that may, always or in some cases only, stand above utility, simplicity, or whatever else it is that is spurring these changes?
Are all changes in language evolutionary or do some leave us with an inferior language?
- Grammar Curmudeons
Had a student ask yesterday about grammatical pet peeves. His was "irregardless." My big three are: 1) "Quote" used for "quotation." Quote is a verb. You quote someone. What you write down is not a quote, but a quotation. ...
- Novel Statements
One of the most amazing aspects of our linguistic faculties (and I don't mean Spanish professors) is our ability to create and understand entirely novel statements. It is one thing to be conditioned to respond to certain stimuli in linguistic ways....
- Language, Gender, And The Many
Wonderful questions this time around, folks. Thank you very much. Two good ones for today. Anne asks, "In Nigeria and parts of Cameroon, pidgin english only uses one gender to describe everyone. Men and women are both given the word man along with all...
- Spanish, Ebonics, And Bushisms: English As Whose National Language?
So we've got another case of conservatives trying to crack down on that creeping menace...the Spanish language. Public libraries in suburban Atlanta will no longer acquire adult fiction in Spanish because immigrants reading John Grisham is a threat...
- History Of The English Language, Animated
Have you ever tried to make sense of the English language? If you've taken courses on linguistics, logic or philosophy of language, you've learned that grammar is supposed to give us a formal understanding of the structure underlying any particular...