Re: Death of the English Language

[Carl Distefano cld@xxxxxxxx]

Reply to note from flash  Sun, 17 Oct 2010 12:29:59
+0200

> http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Grammar_Nazi

Amusing article. There's no doubt that people who gratuitously
correct other people's grammar are tedious sorts, and I think the
hyperbole about Nazis is mostly a colorful way of saing "Back off!".
The philosophical subtext of "grammar Nazi", though -- the notion
that "standard" or "educated" English implies totalitarian control
-- would make an interesting essay topic, which might be framed by
the observations that (1) the Western system of university education
is descended from a regime in which a few Latin-speaking monks
produced, and were the designated keepers of, a discrete body of
canonical texts, and (2) the future of education is in doubt absent
broad agreement on what comprise the core attributes of an educated
person. This "totalitarian" notion springs, evidently, from the view
that the Internet is, and should be, an anarchic environment with no
organizing principle beyond its underlying protocols -- a view for
which I have some sympathy, especially given the current assault on
Net neutrality. Yet surely the "Nazi" trope is fundamentally
meretricious. When a thousand flowers bloom, the smell of manure is
hard to avoid.

Let me hasten to add that the correction of grammar or syntax in any
language, human or otherwise, in this forum is completely
appropriate, on-topic, and established by custom and usage of many
years' standing. If you attempt to do so, however, you had damn well
better be right. Otherwise, no soup for you!

--
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxx