Column: On the evolution of language

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Question: “Jordan, I was tempted to write you after your comments on ‘may’ vs. ‘can’. I didn’t, but your comments on ‘snuck’ and ‘sneaked’ have tipped me over the edge. I know English is a living language and needs to be with new ideas, inventions, etc. that need identifying. However, why do the powers that be and dictionaries allow bad language to become good or acceptable language just because so many people use it? Bad is bad regardless. Why ever learn good English if one’s bad English will eventually be acceptable. To allow the bad to become good, is allowing our language to go downhill. Let the bad stay bad and if a large number of people want to speak bad English, so be it. But at least they will know it is bad English.”  — (John Ross)

Answer: Every year, dictionaries release their list of new words that have been “officially” added to the language and words that have gained new meanings. Every year I cringe (Not “selfie!”).

The conceit that you and I allow ourselves in these moments is that there are “powers that be” when it comes to language. But that is not how language evolves.

There is a great quote from “This Craft of Verse” by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges about just this notion:

“… language is not, as we are led to suppose by the dictionary, the invention of academicians or philologists. Rather, it has been evolved through time … by peasants, by fishermen, by hunters, by riders.”

When we say things like, “How could they let that become acceptable!” or “Why don’t they enforce the rules of grammar?” we’re expecting the tail to wag the dog. The role of the dictionary is that of a scribe: recording how the language is used at this point in time by the people who use it. When the language changes, so must the dictionary – lest it risk becoming irrelevant.


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Column: On the evolution of language

0

Question: “Jordan, I was tempted to write you after your comments on ‘may’ vs. ‘can’. I didn’t, but your comments on ‘snuck’ and ‘sneaked’ have tipped me over the edge. I know English is a living language and needs to be with new ideas, inventions, etc. that need identifying. However, why do the powers that be and dictionaries allow bad language to become good or acceptable language just because so many people use it? Bad is bad regardless. Why ever learn good English if one’s bad English will eventually be acceptable. To allow the bad to become good, is allowing our language to go downhill. Let the bad stay bad and if a large number of people want to speak bad English, so be it. But at least they will know it is bad English.”  — (John Ross)

Answer: Every year, dictionaries release their list of new words that have been “officially” added to the language and words that have gained new meanings. Every year I cringe (Not “selfie!”).

The conceit that you and I allow ourselves in these moments is that there are “powers that be” when it comes to language. But that is not how language evolves.

There is a great quote from “This Craft of Verse” by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges about just this notion:

“… language is not, as we are led to suppose by the dictionary, the invention of academicians or philologists. Rather, it has been evolved through time … by peasants, by fishermen, by hunters, by riders.”

When we say things like, “How could they let that become acceptable!” or “Why don’t they enforce the rules of grammar?” we’re expecting the tail to wag the dog. The role of the dictionary is that of a scribe: recording how the language is used at this point in time by the people who use it. When the language changes, so must the dictionary – lest it risk becoming irrelevant.


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