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Subject:Re: To utilize or not to utilize? (Take II) From:Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 04 Sep 2001 13:43:32 -0700
"Stegall, Sarah" wrote:
> > if writers and editors as a whole had ever borne such responsibility,
> > we'd probably all be speaking medieval French right now! <g>
> >
> And this is a Bad Thing? :D At least it would be a lot more consistent, no?
Don't bet on it. Writers and editors aren't usually the ones who initiate
changes in a language - at least, not since Elizabethean times. So, we'd
probably have a more staid and less interesting language.
Moreover, writers and editors did try to seize control of the language in the
18th Century. Determined to set standards and to rescue English from itself,
they tried to impose the grammar of Latin on it and came up with all sorts of
arbitrary and unsuitable rules. The result was to give a large chunk of the
population a serious inferiority complex about grammar without improving the
general standards of communication. Fortunately for the sake of the language,
many people didn't bother to listen to them. :-)
Which is not to say that individual writers shouldn't try for precision in their
writing or try to avoid sloppy expressions - just that they shouldn't confuse
this personal integrity with any effort to save the language.
--
Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7177
A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
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