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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 09/15/00 -- Vol. 19, No. 11
Chair/Librarian: Mark Leeper, 732-817-5619, mleeper@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper, 732-332-6218, eleeper@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist: Rob Mitchell, robmitchell@lucent.com
HO Chair Emeritus: John Jetzt, jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian Emeritus: Nick Sauer, njs@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the
second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call
201-447-3652 for details. The Denver Area Science Fiction
Association meets 7:30 PM on the third Saturday of every month at
Southwest State Bank, 1380 S. Federal Blvd.
===================================================================
1. I took part in an interesting discussion recently. I thought it
might make a good thought piece here. My father is a polymer
chemist. But he has always had an interest in words and language.
At the dinner table he would proudly bring and drop some obscure
word that nobody else had ever heard of. "Does anyone know what
'panegyric' means?" He would do it with much the same pride as a
cat dropping on the front porch a dead mouse she knew nobody else
could catch. My father, though a chemist, was fascinated with
words and gave them precisely the enthusiasm that people who work
in words--scholars and authors--do not give to polymer chemistry.
Not that I always agree with him on the subject. He recently sent
me a piece of mail.
----
Subject: "Worst Grammatical Error."
"I'll try AND complete this by Tuesday" or "I'll try AND convince
him ----," etc." instead of "I'll try TO ----."
This ranks with me as the most egregious error in the English
language not only because of its incorrectness, but because it is
so wide spread in its flagrant use, even by people of education, by
people who use English professionally, editorially, etc. Can I get
your comments?
Dad
----
To this I responded:
Subject: Re: Worst Grammatical Error
I am not sure what brought this on, but it is part of a long-
standing disagreement we have. I would say this is a proto-
idiomatic usage. At least on a pretentious day I would say that.
Language is determined by how people agree to speak and what is
understood. Idioms are frequently added to the language. Would
you call a moratorium on the invention of idioms?
Much worse to my mind are the usages that are factually wrong. I
dislike the ones in which you say something that taken literally is
the opposite of what you mean. If we could get those out of our
language I could care less if people said "try and".
Mark
----
Subject: Re: Worst Grammatical Error
When does a grammatical error become proto-idiomatic? Where do you
draw the line of now-acceptability? Is there such a thing as a
grammatical error? Who decides when a grammatical error crosses
the proto-idiomatic line? Like "the criteria is" and "the data
is". Why bother to teach correct use of the English language?
Dad
----
Subject: Re: Worst Grammatical Error
You ask, "When does a grammatical error become proto-idiomatic?
Where do you draw the line of now-acceptability?" There is nothing
more democratic than language. When did pony-tails and earrings
become acceptable for men? Some places they have not yet, some
places they have been acceptable all along. By the standards of
Shakespeare's day you make a lot of grammatical errors. In school
you learn the rules of grammar because children need rules, but
when you approach it on an adult level suddenly it not longer is
rules. It goes from being the "grammar" of the English language to
being a "style." Strunk and White's book on usage, probably the
most popular, is called THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE not THE ELEMENTS OF
GRAMMAR. The New York Times gives its writers a "style book" to
explain how they make plurals, possessives, etc. In school you are
taught not hard and fast rules about our language but a style that
works. It is sort of a common ground neutral style that will work
in the black community, in the English-speaking Yiddish community,
in the English-speaking Serbian community, etc. But each of these
communities has its own grammar apart from the utilitarian common
grammar. No?
You ask, "Is there such a thing as a grammatical error?" Not in
the same sense that there is a mathematical error. There is
varying from the common style.
Who decides when a grammatical error crosses the proto-idiomatic
line? The same group of people who decide whether you can wear a
blue shirt with brown pants or white shoes after Labor Day. It is
a committee we call "common consent."
Why bother to teach correct use of the English language? Purely
because if people stray too far from common usage, then
communication breaks down. The "rules" that don't really enhance
communication eventually fall to derision. I don't think anybody
ever misunderstood a sentence because the speaker chose to
carelessly split an infinitive or use a preposition to end a
sentence with.
Mark [-mrl]
Mark Leeper
HO 1K-644 732-817-5619
mleeper@lucent.com
Conscience: The inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
-- H. L. Mencken
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