1. Do languages have to change?
The meanings of words shouldn't change because . . .
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2. Do languages have to change?
The meanings of words shouldn't change because . . .
It would cause confusion
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3. Do languages have to change?
The meanings of words shouldn't change because . . .
It would cause confusion
But most words have more than one meaning
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4. Do languages have to change?
The meanings of words shouldn't change because . . .
It would cause confusion
But most words have more than one meaning
Context tells you which meaning is meant
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5. Do languages have to change?
We should retain the original meaning of a word
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6. Do languages have to change?
We should retain the original meaning of a word
How original?
Nice: uncut > ignorant > silly > foolish > agreeable
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7. Do languages have to change?
Do people who learn what original meaning was or notice change look down on users of new meaning to feel superior to them?
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8. Do languages have to change?
Where do dictionaries get the meanings from?
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9. Do languages have to change?
Where do dictionaries get the meanings from?
THE WAY PEOPLE USE THE WORD!!
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10. Do languages have to change?
Where do dictionaries get the meanings from?
THE WAY PEOPLE USE THE WORD!!
Meaning meaning exists because people agree on what it means
Dictionaries describe speech, they aren't made to prescribe it.
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11. Do languages have to change?
Where do dictionaries get the meanings from?
THE WAY PEOPLE USE THE WORD!!
Meaning meaning exists because people agree on what it means.
Dictionaries describe speech, they aren't made to prescribe it.
Dictionaries are always behind the times.
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12. Do languages have to change?
When a community uses a word with a particular (new) meaning, then that words gets that meaning in spite of what language purists and the dictionary say.
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13. Do languages have to change?
When a community uses a word with a particular (new) meaning, then that words gets that meaning in spite of what language purists and the dictionary say.
Usage rules language not grammar books and dictionaries
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14. Do languages have to change?
When a community uses a word with a particular (new) meaning, then that words gets that meaning in spite of what language purists and the dictionary say.
Usage rules language not grammar books and dictionaries
Most language communicate well and have no written grammars or dictionaries.
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15. Do languages have to change?
Languages regulate themselves because people want to communicate
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16. Do languages have to change?
Languages regulate themselves because people want to communicate
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17. Bad Grammar
SIR: A pamphlet for a technical college in my area has a heading that always irritates me. It says, ``Whom to call for answers.'' Perhaps it is good English, but somehow it grates on my nerves. Shouldn't it be ``Who to call for answers''? - Lois Z.
ANSWER: There's irony for you. ``Whom to call'' is correct and has been recognized as such for many years (``whom'' is the object of ``to call''), but nowadays people fiercely resist ``whom'' whenever they can. Usage such as ``Who to call'' has become so popular it has received a great deal of acceptance. So now some are beginning to believe that ``whom to call'' may be bad English! Which goes to show that at least a few of us are badly confused, but I'm not entirely sure who. That's who, not whom.
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18. Bad Grammar
I say "amen" to Marianne Jennings' column, "Textbook authors stifled by today's pronoun police." I'm weary of being forced to choose between bad grammar ("Everyone in the room took off their shoes"), sexism ("Everyone in the room took off his shoes") or annoying, excess verbiage ("Everyone in the room took off his or her shoes."). Even saying "his or her" isn't enough; some take offense because "his" precedes "her."Pronoun police are a menace to creative, intelligent thought.
Craig Larson
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19. Bad Grammar
Question: "I before E except after C." What thanks do schoolkids owe the originator of this famous mnemonic device for spelling words like "receive," "deceive," "conceive," "conceit," "ceiling"?
Answer: No thanks at all for this anCIEnt, unsCIEntific, ineffiCIEnt, insuffiCIEnt and defiCIEnt rule! NEIther should kids try to rule-spell "finanCIEr," "soCIEty," "juiCIEr," nor anything in the group of "EIght," "bEIge," "nEIghbor," "codEIne," "protEIn," "rEIgn," "sEIze," "thEIr," "wEIgh" and "wEIrd." There are well over 100 such exceptions, says David Crystal in "The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language," with IE following C, or EI following just about anything it chooses.
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20. Bad Grammar
I enjoy a good grammar tussle as much as the next guy. But Ron Ollis (Readers' Forum, Aug. 31) is "both mistaken and overly contentious" when he takes the Deseret Morning News to task for using the construction "both X and Y" in recent reportage.
A quick search of the Helsinki Corpus, a standard electronic source for historical English texts, reveals instances of "both X and Y" at least as early as 1419: "bothe englisshmen & aliens."
In the King James Version of the Bible, a search through the book of Genesis alone turned up 16 instances of "both X and Y," including the following example: "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast. (Genesis 6:7). Another search through the Gospels turned up a further 16 examples.
A search through the sonnets of Shakespeare shows that the Bard was not averse to using this construction: "Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun" (Sonnet 35, line 3).
As a linguist, I appreciate the zeal which accompanies discussion of grammatical niceties such as this. But it is both irresponsible and off- putting to see would-be grammarians finding mistakes where none have been made.
Dirk Elzinga
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21. Bad Grammar
Prescriptive versus descriptive grammar
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22. Accent
What does it mean to have an accent?
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23. Accent What does it mean to have an accent?
What does it mean to have a strong accent?
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24. Accent What does it mean to have an accent?
What does it mean to have a strong accent?
What does it mean to be a gentile?
To a Jew?
To a Nephite?
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