FW: Sept.11

[Grant Barrett]

This is a message I received at the American Dialect Society web site today.
I think it may call for responses beyond what I have already given the
sender, so I am forwarding it onto the list. My comments are appended below.


From: "Grant, David" <dhgrant at hydro.mb.ca>
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 16:15:48 -0600
To: "'gbarrett at americandialect.org'" <gbarrett at americandialect.org>
Subject: Sept.11

Hi,

I just read a news article about your votes on phrases in use since 2001 09
11, and thought I would offer a comment.  Your group has voted on a term.
Great.  On the other hand, do you ever vote for stuff you cannot use?  If
you voted a Pepsi slogan as if it were yours, would PepsiCo not be expected
to write to you?  It seems that the terms NINE ONE ONE and NINE ELEVEN have
current meanings, which cannot be readily abandoned by the current users.
Do you not seek to avoid ambiguity in you adoption of words and terms?
Rather than worry about geographical economy (shorter terms being best?) you
should have tried for a phrase that was not already a part of contemporary
life.  No one talks about 12-6; they refer to the date of the Pearl Harbor
attack as Dec.6.

Are you aware that Ground Zero refers to the point below the location of the
detonation of a nuclear device?  While it could refer to little bits of WW2
fighter plane, it refers, in fact, to the radius of a subject point from the
focus of the bomb, and the elevation above the ground.  If the bomb goes off
500 feet above ground, below that would be ground zero.  While some
structures might survive at a mile radius, it was felt the maximum
destruction was at ground elevation and zero miles away.

Really, the aluminum in the dust that day was ground Boeing... although most
do not use this more technically correct term.

If your limited life experience has not made you aware, NINE ONE ONE is
currently the only term we use when referring to telephone access to
emergency services.   NINE ELEVEN is the model and hence only name for my
car.  When Porsche tried to use the model number 901 about 40 years ago, it
found that a French company had fully trademarked it and a large number of
other number designations.  Porsche has made and marketed cars under the
brand name 911 (pronounced nine eleven) for 38 years now.  I have no link
with the Porsche companies.  I do deplore your leap-without-thinking
approach to this.  It is not too late to use the less ambiguous term
Sept.11.  As a thinking user of this language, I do wish those with
influence would use appropriate forethought.

Most sincerely yours,

David Grant

...

My response:

David,

Speaking for myself and not the organization, I appreciate what you're
saying, but you misunderstand the purpose of the Words of the Year vote.
What the American Dialect Society does is accumulate words and phrases as
they are used, and then vote on them according to the categories we consider
relevant. That's it. We don't invent, fabricate or coin the words or
phrases. We don't adopt them, endorse them, canonize them or otherwise make
them official. The key here is that the terms in question *are already in
use* and we simply acknowledge that use, even if they are at odds with
pre-existing usages.

Perhaps your message has its origins in a common misunderstanding of the
English language. Unlike languages such as French and Hebrew, there is no
official body that inducts words into an official dictionary. The words we
vote on occur in everyday language and, after sufficient evidence that they
are not temporary slang or passing fads (usually backed by a long-term
presence in written form), and long after our votes, various editors for
myriad dictionaries may choose or choose not to include those words in the
dictionary. Whether to use the words is an individual decision, both for the
editors and the everyday English speaker. Again, the ADS is not an inventor
of new language, but an organization the merely recognizes its existence,
and says, as a body, Hey, here are some new, interesting things people are
doing with this versatile language we all use.

You should also be aware that most of the members of our organization
(unlike me) are truly experts in the field: linguists, lexicographers,
writers, editors, translators, etymologists, researchers, professors and the
like who are respected in their fields because of their experience and
professionalism. This means, among other things, that they are just as
reluctant as you appear to be to force-feed the English-speaking world a new
word just because they like it.

Thanks, in any case, for your comments.

Grant Barrett
American Dialect Society Webmaster
gbarrett at americandialect.org