March 5th, 2007

Language: evolving or intelligently designed?

By Eric Bruenner

Allow me to preface this post by saying that the only thing that gets me harder than the suffering of others is probably linguistics. Contained in my list of “things I would need to properly conduct a romantic evening with Ludwig Wittgenstein
list” are (in no particular order): scented candles, a pack of ravenous wolverines in heat, a shallow earthen pit and (of course) Hypnotiq.

Anyway, I personally thought Kreiter’s prose was goddamned delectable–I did have some beef with some of the implications in her column today though.

She pretty much sums them up in her post:

But in 2007, in America, in language, there is generally one correct way to phrase things. And when there does happen to be more than a single way, there is generally a preferred option. There are varying degrees of incorrectness, such as when someone says he is “good” and not “well.” We all forgive this because it’s common and we know what the bungler is saying. But it’s wrong. It’s wrong, and until the English language devolves along with you, you’re wrong.

Technically the English language has been ‘devolving’ since its conception. We cannot forget that our language originated from a poorly pronounced and spoken combination of Roman Latin, French Latin (i.e. Norman) and Old German (whatever the Saxons spoke). This is a quick run down of a very long and complicated history, but you should really pick up “The Story of English” if you seriously think there is a ‘right’ English. Or you could just check out the OED for a brief tutorial in how fluid definition and usage really is over time.

To say one dialect is less ‘correct’ than another is actually a completely baseless statement. I actually came in my pants during one chapter in “The Story of English” where they describe some of the grammatical/syntactical advantages of Black Ebonics that we don’t even have in the standard dialect.

There is actually no reason for assuming that ‘in line’ is in any way more correct or clear than “on line”–yes there is some confusion implicit in the second version, but there is so much of this in ’standard/accepted’ English that this is hardly criteria for dismissing a particular phrase.

Ultimately, dictionaries, grammar and style guides, etc. are just a brief snapshot of a language’s evolution through time.

In other news, I have absolutely no fucking life.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 5th, 2007 at 11:50 pm and is filed under Opinion, The Octagon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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