Politics and the English Language

[I.D.10-t]

It amazes me reading “Calculus Made Easy" by Silvanus P. Thompson and other older books how well written they are compared to modern magazines and books (broad generalization, I know). I remember reports from NPR saying that the mechanic union’s strike threw a wrench into the works of the airline, how the terrorist threat flew under the FBI’s radar, etc.

I just read this article and I think that it puts into words what I have been thinking for a while, but could never quite recognize which things were wrong. I just cannot believe that it was written in 1946.

Politics and the English Language

[The Weekenders]

Clearly, this is an unconscionable exploration into wretched excesses of the post-Modern paradigm.

[djm]

Interesting that the author has not accounted for cultural degeneration as a prime motivator for deterioration of linguistic skills. Popular culture has put such a great emphasis on celebratizing the poorest, most ignorant elements of our society that it is small wonder that our language use should devolve to the most ignorant levels.

djm

[missy]

I know for "my" generation (graduated in 1976) - many of us were taught to read in the "look - see" method with no phonics. I still am a terrible speller, although I try very hard not to be. I have a particularly hard time with the simple words learned in the early grades (is it "their" or "thier" - I still have to stop and think about it). I also had the "benefit" of "new" math, and didn't know there was a relationship between decimals and fractions until I got to high school algebra.

For my sons' (graduated this year, and one going into 9th grade) it was "whole language". They were "allowed" to write however they wanted, and spell however they wanted, until 4th grade. Then divine inspiration was supposed to strike and they were to have all the tools for proper writing. My oldest is also a poor speller. My youngest can spell, but only because he needed intensive speech therapy and learned phonics during that.

I've read that things are getting more and more messed up with the "acceptance" of text messaging abbreviations into every day writing.

[PJ]

I blame it all on TV:

"To boldly go where no man has gone before."

The most famous split-infinitive of all time. Not even corrected with the new generation of politicial-correctness:

"To boldly go where no one has gone before"

[Sunnywindo]

Clearly, this is an unconscionable exploration into wretched excesses of the post-Modern paradigm.

Whaaat? (Pulls out a dictionary.)


Really though, that's an interesting looking article.


Sara

[The Weekenders]

I was morbidly fascinated by the use of "clearly" and "unconscionable" for a while there.

I will get some singed feathers for saying so, but both were popular among the Left, by elected politicians or media types.

When someone uses "clearly," it often is not, actually, but they are trying to establish a reality to then suggest an action or attitude.

"Unconscionable" just erupted from somewhere about, oh, 8 or 10 years ago in common usage. It was always a charge of some awful thing that a conservative or Repub had done and I never heard a representative of the latter use it. (Because clearly, they have no consciences, saving Gilder the trouble of saying it).

Paradigm and paradigm shift are used a lot and may actually mean something. I think I know what that is. It seems to be expressing a way that society views and acts on some given issue....confronted with new evidence or a newly-developed viewpoint, that relationship changes.

And, in the hyperbolic manner of a certain kind of thinker that shall remain nameless, when that shift occurs, it is a "sea change."

I guess.....

[anniemcu]

And here I though we were getting another lesson is Bushisms.

Politics, as a matter of course, seeks to court "the common man", and so it is no real surprise that our politicians have become "common" as well, though sadly, in the less flattering definition thereof. I think the fact that our great nation has chosen to elect a man who cannot pronounce as simple a word as "nuclear" is telling. If that one word were the only indication of his lack of verbal skills, I wouldn't even mention it, but he has such a long list of excruciating errors that we should be noting it. We have stopped valuing the ability to speak in clear and functional English.

[Wombat]

Paradigm and paradigm shift are used a lot and may actually mean something. I think I know what that is. It seems to be expressing a way that society views and acts on some given issue....confronted with new evidence or a newly-developed viewpoint, that relationship changes.

It does mean something. If I remember rightly, it goes back to the historian of science Thomas Kuhn writing in about 1960. For Kuhn. most science was 'normal' science, that is to say, it made small progress within a framework that remained unchallenged by the scientist. If you discover a new species of worm you are doing normal science. Against that stands revolutionary science which requires those who understand to conceptualise the area in question in a radically new way. The theory of special relativity, the first quantum mechanics, Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection were exercises in revolutionary science and involved a change of paradigm or a paradigm shift. Not all great science involves paradigm shift; I take it that the discovery of the structure of DNA was not revolutionary in the same way. Buddy can you paradigm?

There'll be a change in the paradigm, a change in the sea
Before long there'll be a change in me,
My walk will be different, my talk and my name,
Nothin' about me's gonna be the same,
I'm gonna change my long tall for a little short fat,
Even change the number that I'm living at,
Nobody loves you when you're old and grey,
Paradigms are gonna change today,
There'll be some changes made.

[The Weekenders]

And here I though we were getting another lesson is Bushisms.

.

Frankly, I think that misuse of the language is more interesting and egregious when it comes from those operating within the bounds of the intelligentsia and "expert" field. Heck, with Bush, it's obvious that he was not only a lousy student, but probably ADHD to boot. The other Weekender, watching a Bush interview, diagnosed him with the latter.

[perrins57]

Man this sucks, whats appening to our lingo? I blames the commies I does. Noone can talk proper now anymore isnt it?

[s1m0n]

I blame it all on TV:

"To boldly go where no man has gone before."

The most famous split-infinitive of all time.

There's nothing wrong with splitting infinitives, and what's more there never was.

The "rule" about splitting infinitives is a hoax. Linguists and grammarians don't know where it began, but it's bunk. The english language has been quite happily splitting its infinitives ever since we developed our preposition-based verb inflection system, about a thousand years ago.

~~~

That said, the belief that education is degenerating is a product of the age, and the age is about 35.

Every generation since the beginning of time has felt the same. I've seen a collection of statements, for instance, in which the older generation decries the shoddy education achievements of the next generation sourced from every decade of the past century, and I've seen similar collections sourced in every century back to the time of Christ. Orwell's rant, penned in 1946, is one such. He's talking about your parent's generation, and the generation which taught YOU to speak and write. Do you think their speech was "degenerate"? My parents' certainly wasn't.

Nostalgia is human nature, and is a constant. It has, in other words, no correlation to fact.

~~

The bald facts is that more of our kids are learning more information and technique faster than any generation before them.

Yes, they aren't well versed in the writing style of previous days. Well, you weren't, either, when you went to school, and this fact distressed your parents' generation to the exact extent that you're distressed about it now.

[Whistling Pops]

Well said, s1m0n

[anniemcu]

And here I thought we were getting another lesson is Bushisms.

.

Frankly, I think that misuse of the language is more interesting and egregious when it comes from those operating within the bounds of the intelligentsia and "expert" field. Heck, with Bush, it's obvious that he was not only a lousy student, but probably ADHD to boot. The other Weekender, watching a Bush interview, diagnosed him with the latter.

You know, being ADD myself, I have often thought that he seems a classic case. The problem being that he has obviously never come to grips with the acceptable coping behaviors. LOL!

[OnTheMoor]

Nostalgia is human nature, and is a constant. It has, in other words, no correlation to fact.

"Nostalgia is like grammar, the present tense and the past perfect."