Hear, hear! Statements like this:
are the usual apologist hogwash for the unrepentantly illiterate. The
"Dumbing of America" (though obviously far more widespread than that)
has been going on for many years, and nowhere on the planet is "English
as she is spoke and writ" in a greater state of decay than America. I'm
not talking about "growth and change," I'm talking about ignorance and
sloth. English is a very complex language, full of quirky pronunciations
(though, tough, cough), odd spelling rules (i before e, except after c?)
emigrant words from many other languages, but with very definite rules
of syntax and grammar. It is also an exceptionally elegant language,
capable of great nuance and subtlety, and with -- when well-crafted -- a
rhythmic, harmonious flow completely unlike any other.
English, the common language that, as Churchill said, divides America
and Great Britain, has also become the International language of
science, diplomacy, air travel, and the internet. The chief reason for
that is that English can be both extremely precise AND richly shaded.
But both precision and subtlety are thrown out the window when people
start making up their own rules, or aping the egregious solecisms they
see on TV or the Net -- the two most pervasive media of English decay,
with the print media -- the one that should, above all others, know
better -- coming in a close third.
English certainly evolves -- another of its great strengths is the ease
in which new or foreign words are assimiliated -- but it doesn't evolve
in anarchy; it grows and changes within its comprehensive ruleset, and
those changes that are least jarring and most fluidly natural are the
ones that make the transition most quickly and painlessly. The ruleset
itself changes, but not without the overwhelming pressure of common
usage. Two excellent examples are the relaxed usage of "who" and "whom",
and the more naturally-flowing exceptions to the "split infinitive" rule.
English is not a stupid language. The mind-numbing idiocy of supposedly
politically-correct aberrations like "Ebonics" -- actually just another
plot to keep African-Americans out of the mainstream of American life --
refused to take root in the wise soil of our language, as the bizarre
experiments in Esperanto and "phonetic English" likewise withered in
their brief heydays. But without constant vigilance and good-spirited
correction, decay will set in. As another great English-speaking
Canadian, Neil Young, once observed: "Rust never sleeps". Already, with
publishing houses dispensing with flesh-and-*** editors and
proofreading being largely mangled by computer spell-checkers
(notoriously unable to determine correct usage, and don't even GET me on
the subject of computer grammar-checkers!), I've seen publications from
major houses incorrectly using "break" for "brake", "shear" for "sheer",
and those are just the most simple ones.
Finally, I think Bruce's comments about new English users learning the
language correctly are spot-on. Communication is the greatest tool the
human race possesses. It is the basis for all societies and tribes, from
the nuclear family to great nation-states. It is the basis for settled
civilizations and the world economy. We are present at the full
flowering of the information age. There is nothing more important in an
information-driven society that that information be precisely correct
when it needs to be correct, and, trickier yet, appropriately ambivalent
when it needs to be ambivalent. What greater proof of that could there
be than the many misunderstandings that arise in these newsgroups
because of sloppy writing? Anyone who doesn't know how to use English
correctly is at a social, personal, and economic disadvantage, and
that's simply not acceptable, when it's so easy to avoid. What's the
best way to avoid it? Read the works of people who know the English
language: Tolkien, Safire, Melville, Lincoln (some of the greatest and
most simple and direct English ever written), Steinbeck, Twain,
Chesterton, Wells, Orwell, Huxley, John Barth, Kurt Vonnegut, Eudora
Welty, Ursula LeGuin, Richard Adams, Robert Pirsig, Carl Sandburg,
Shelby Foote. Read. Read. Read. Read. Read. Read. Read. Read. Read.
There, I'm over it.
BB
