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avevale_intelligencerI've been trying to keep rants off this journal, but LJ seems to be croggled and this needs saying.
I've learned to think twice before airing my nasty horrible fascist elitist racist anti-working-class privileged preference for the idea that there is such a thing as correct English and that everyone should have the opportunity to learn it. Such views are not to be entertained. Language must be abandoned to the whims of random chance and anything someone says is automatically correct because someone has said it. I get that. Far be it from me to attempt to interfere with anyone's freedom of speech.
However. There are facts which can be taught about language, like what words actually are, and I believe it's a good idea when they are taught. An example. I was bemused to learn that Disney are "coronating" Merida, from Brave, as an authentic Disney Princess (having tidied her up and made her inoffensive first, of course, but that's a whole other thing).
"Coronating."
How can someone not know that "coronation" is the posh Latin noun from the simple and useful Anglo-Saxon verb "to crown"? What teacher failed to impart this ordinary piece of knowledge to a person whose life was going to include writing in public? What child's fairy tale book failed to include a sentence like "and she was crowned queen of all the land"?
And do we really want people making up lame, pretentious new words to replace simple, useful old words, just because our mystical reverence for Wangwidge* prevents us from teaching our children simple facts?
I look forward to the day when an argument breaks out over whether "coronate" means "to have a heart attack" or "to conduct an inquest." In the meantime, I'll be over here, consternating.
Oh, and don't tell me "coronate"'s in the OED. I'm sure it is. So is "katabothron."
*As the Impressive Clergyman would doubtless have termed it.
I've learned to think twice before airing my nasty horrible fascist elitist racist anti-working-class privileged preference for the idea that there is such a thing as correct English and that everyone should have the opportunity to learn it. Such views are not to be entertained. Language must be abandoned to the whims of random chance and anything someone says is automatically correct because someone has said it. I get that. Far be it from me to attempt to interfere with anyone's freedom of speech.
However. There are facts which can be taught about language, like what words actually are, and I believe it's a good idea when they are taught. An example. I was bemused to learn that Disney are "coronating" Merida, from Brave, as an authentic Disney Princess (having tidied her up and made her inoffensive first, of course, but that's a whole other thing).
"Coronating."
How can someone not know that "coronation" is the posh Latin noun from the simple and useful Anglo-Saxon verb "to crown"? What teacher failed to impart this ordinary piece of knowledge to a person whose life was going to include writing in public? What child's fairy tale book failed to include a sentence like "and she was crowned queen of all the land"?
And do we really want people making up lame, pretentious new words to replace simple, useful old words, just because our mystical reverence for Wangwidge* prevents us from teaching our children simple facts?
I look forward to the day when an argument breaks out over whether "coronate" means "to have a heart attack" or "to conduct an inquest." In the meantime, I'll be over here, consternating.
Oh, and don't tell me "coronate"'s in the OED. I'm sure it is. So is "katabothron."
*As the Impressive Clergyman would doubtless have termed it.