~ (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:27 AM +0000 2/22/09, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>It would be nice if these linguistic classes have some subject
>differenciation (generally). After the Monty Python guy directed the
>person to the right door he said "stupid git", whatever that means.
>
>Writing a dictionary is descriptive, but then for anyone reading
>them prescriptive.  Below you say.
>
>>  Except that your advice is highly prescriptive, while linguistics (not
>>  to mention history) has pretty much demonstrated that that approach
>>  doesn't work.
>
>This kind of statement is worthless without examples.  Got any?

Dennis Baron's book _Language and Good Taste_ is a good place to
look.  Prescriptivists have been fulminating over issues for
centuries, often the same issues, without success.  Don't say "I
will", say "I shall" for the simple future.  Don't say "you were",
say "you was" (at least for the singular).  Don't say "ice cream",
it's illogical; should be "iced cream".  Don't use "object" as a
verb, that's a barbarism.  (Similarly for most denominal verbs now
extant.)  Don't say "Who did you see?", should be "whom".  Don't end
sentences with prepositions or begin them with "and" or "but".  Don't
use words in anything other than original meaning--"tuition" doesn't
refer to money, but to teaching. "Nice" means 'discriminating' (or is
it 'stupid'?), not 'pleasant'.  "Aggravate" doesn't mean 'annoy',
only 'weigh down'.  Do I really need to go on?  I'm sure the
phoneticians could provide similar examples of how not to pronounce
words, and why we should pronounce them in the right way (which
nobody now does).  I believe it shouldn't be that hard to find
additional examples--in the thousands.

LH

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