English is "diminishing"

[Matthew Gordon]

Wow, thanks for passing this along.

Still, this piece is so poorly argued and violative of the linguistic
principles it pretends to defend that I wonder whether it's intended as
parody.


On 2/4/08 10:03 AM, "Andrea Morrow" <aandrea1234 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> I teach business communication, and I subscribe to an online headline
> news service that supposedly brings me "the top headlines in the
> field" (according to the service's copy).
>
> One of today's headlines was "English Language Still Diminishing in
> Quality".  As we all know, this has been such a familiar complaint,
> it's a wonder English hasn't diminished right out of existence.  Turns
> out, the headline is from a college newspaper editorial, with such
> statements as: "Wave goodbye to the days of extant originality and
> herald the proximity of clones thinking similar ideas."  Here's the
> link:
>
> http://theapp.appstate.edu/content/view/3060/41/
>
> I only mention this because it feeds the common (mis)perception that
> English is somehow endangered - and it came to me via a supposedly
> professional channel that is said to capture the latest ideas.
>
> Andrea
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org