Oh Hey There

Ugh.

indefensible:

Please don’t use the feeble defence of sloppy usage - “Oh it’s a living language”.

Yes, it is a living language. So kindly refrain from killing it.

Words are the way we define our interactions with one another and with the past. If we allow words that have specific meanings to acquire other meanings then we introduce confusion and decrease the utility of the language.

For example, if you were to read an account of the recapture of Villers-Bretonneaux which said that advancing forces were decimated, then how would you know what was actually meant? How many died? 10%? 70%?

Decimated and devastated sound similar. They don’t mean the same thing.

Emphasis mine. “If we allow…”: But we do allow words to take on new meanings. We’ve always allowed words to do this. Logically then, the true antecedent implies that we have “introduced confusion and decreased the utility of the language”. I don’t know about you but as an English speaker I don’t wander around confused by my language and I never feel like my language has lost its utility. If anything, semantic language change adds more utility to the language as the new meanings adapt the word for new times.

Let me put that another way: You claim that “Words are the way we define our interactions with one another and with the past.” Well then, a word’s change of meaning reflects our relationship with the past. The “sloppy usage” of using decimate to mean to kick ass instead of the etymological meaning of “kill one in every ten” reflects a change: Namely, we don’t go around barbarically* executing one in every ten. I’m glad we don’t need that meaning to talk about the here and now.

*To be clear, this is a “sloppy usage” of barbaric, since the original and sacrosanct meaning of the word is an outsider who doesn’t understand a tribe’s language and can only imitate it by going “bar bar”. (This is why in linguistics a barbarism refers to an error in morphology.)

Notes:

1. joeydi liked this
2. jaggedfragments reblogged this from tristn-prime and added:

   dead. :) My peeve (not...intentional shorthand you mentioned, which

3. sexartandpolitics liked this
4. jaggedfragments reblogged this from tristn and added:

   your literate response. I don’t think...speakers, since it can honestly

5. zombiecuddle liked this
6. musichistory liked this
7. tristn reblogged this from jaggedfragments and added:

   jaggedfragments in response...this post of mine:

8. jaggedfragments reblogged this from tristn and added:

   Time for another opinion… and a correction. If you want to get a sense of how confusing the evolution of language gets,...

9. georgiaporgia liked this
10. towerofsleep liked this
11. kfedup liked this
12. erinmargrethe liked this
13. bingoparaphernalia liked this
14. lunarroseaerialelm liked this
15. navigolucky liked this
16. ironstring liked this
17. singulus liked this
18. jenniferanne reblogged this from tristn and added:

    morphology. Tristn totally owns this argument. Hey, I guess my use of the term ‘own’ is sloppy. It’s impossible to ‘own’...

19. loscheiner liked this
20. particularapparatus liked this
21. eush liked this
22. hardcorefornerds liked this
23. mumblelard liked this
24. jmath liked this
25. tragos liked this
26. gospelofmoll liked this
27. do-over liked this
28. bmichael liked this
29. tristn reblogged this from indefensible and added:

    Emphasis mine. “If we allow…”: But we do allow words to take on new meanings. We’ve always allowed words to do this....

30. smartasshat liked this
31. azspot liked this
32. whltexbread liked this
33. fleetfootedfox liked this
34. rachelskirts liked this
35. spdracerx liked this
36. nostrich reblogged this from indefensible and added:

    So I guess you’d also never...word “alright,” since

37. yayaa liked this
38. marleymarley liked this
39. atsween liked this
40. dwineman liked this
41. mathcat345 liked this
42. thebarmaiden liked this
43. coyotesqrl liked this
44. blanddiva11 liked this
45. peachcherub liked this
46. kaffeineme liked this
47. rafitorres liked this
48. rachelarogers liked this
49. midseamuffin liked this
50. 749 reblogged this from indefensible
51. ladawn liked this
52. indefensible liked this
53. inothernews liked this
54. jamiek liked this
55. reimer reblogged this from indefensible and added:

    “Down with Grammar”...trending topic on Twitter right now. Enough said.

56. texburgher liked this
57. gordonshumway liked this
58. jaunty reblogged this from indefensible and added:

    Sorry, I didn’t mean to come across as...language police. I’ve never really thought...

59. milkglassmao liked this
60. jeanharlot liked this
61. jollilama liked this
62. kryz liked this
63. tj liked this
64. xntrek liked this
65. spiltneedles liked this
66. indefensible posted this