"mere mistakes"

[Dennis R. Preston]

Alexey,

Please spell and pronounce "asterisk" this way. Otherwise the great
linguistics t-shirt joke is lost.

Speak ungrammatically
You have only your *

Who remembers the origin of this jewel?

dInIs

PS: Your last two sentences ain't no good. They should be "They don't use
no asterisks in Webster. I seen it there."





>At least, no more akstericks in the fuckin'-word during this discussion
>here. Seems to me hypocrisy. They dont use no asktericks in Webster, I saw
>it there.
>
>Pardon my French.
>
>                                                        Alexey
>
>
>On Wed, 6 Oct 1999, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>
>> I'm not sure how to deal with this diatribe against language legislation by
>> expert bodies (which is generally universally ignored as quaint bullshit)
>> which goes on to apply pet-peeve legislation at the individual level.
>>
>> Of course the history of every language is more than a little firmly rooted
>> in "mere mistakes." Since I am a native speaker of "I like to fuckin'
>> died," I was intrigued by the transportation of the "infinitive marker"
>> (which it isn't) from "like to" to "about" in the expression. Those who are
>> not intrigued by "mistakes" like these (and the underlying grammar which
>> licenses them) are missing out on all the fun (not to mention the science).
>>
>> This does not mean, of course, that us linguists do not have ordinary
>> feelings which reflect our own life experiences, and these little
>> prejudices are fun to read. I jot them down in the interest of language
>> attitude and folk linguistic research all the time.
>>
>> dInIs
>>
>>
>>  >> Isn't anyone bothered by "exetera"?
>> >>
>> >
>> >I guess it becomes a puristic argument similar to a meeting of anonymous
>> >alcoholics. People who are fond of the language are always bothered when
>> >other people talk incorrectly. But we are helpless, for if you hear
>> >"exetera" around, it will be "exetera" and not the old good Latin "et
>> >cetera." When I was younger, I was furious about "kofe" (russian "coffee")
>> >being colloquially used in neutrum. It has to be masculine, I knew it, I
>> >heard it in my family, I read it in books. A couple of years ago a
>> >freaking "language academy" introduced a new "law," allowing (sic!) people
>> >to regard "kofe" as neutrum. Those for whom language was merely means of
>> >communication were celebrating - they did not have to fight themselves
>> >anymore. What academy can introduce laws for language which is a form of
>> >existence and a living body (at least, for me)?
>> >A couple of further examples. The german-whatever-academy for a long time
>> >now tries to get rid of es-zet, a gothic letter sounding like "ss" in
>> >English. They also try to eliminate "ph" in Greek words and substitute
>> >simple "f" for it. It is normal, it is orthography, nothing more, nothing
>> >less, but why does it have to be artificial?
>> >A construct "I about to fucking died" appeared recently on the list. It
>> >does not have to be studied (maybe, just noted). It has to be eliminated.
>> >A person using such a construct does not suggest an interesting usage of
>> >grammatical and lexical units, he is merely mistaken. For me, it is
>> >disgusting (though I do not possess exemplary knowledge of the English
>> >language myself).
>> >On the other hand, one can do nothing about that. I can bring more
>> >examples from Hebrew with its poor lexicon heading to the huge gap which
>> >already exists in Arabic between the spoken language and the literature,
>> >but the efforts to stops this process are probably vain. The language will
>> >"develop." For me, a consolation is that the good old language does not
>> >die. It may not be spoken, but it is in the books.
>> >I vainly hope that the "language academies" will rather die while standing
>> >than live on their knees, "legalizing" "I about to fucking died" instead
>> >of supporting propoer language education. This may decelerate the process
>> >of language degeneration and stimulated deterioration.
>> >
>> >Of course, "exetera" bothers me.
>> >
>> >                                                        A.Fuchs
>> >
>> >P.S. "Don't afraid. Everybody must dead." is my favourite movie quotation.
>>
>> Dennis R. Preston
>> Professor of Linguistics
>> Department of Linguistics and Languages
>> Michigan State University
>> East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
>> preston at pilot.msu.edu
>> Office: (517)353-0740
>> Fax: (517)432-2736
>>

Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736