Correcting other people's English illegal

[Wilson Gray]

Dennis Baron writes:

Unfortunately, in terms of language, most people want to be correct,
_but they don't want to be corrected_.

Dennis, you are sure-enough saying a taste! I still remember the
consequences of unthinkingly
pointing out to a girlfriend that "ballad" is pronounced [b&.l at d] and
not "ballard" [b&.l at rd]. And that was ca.1967!

And I also still remember the time that someone said to me, "E-pock?
Do you mean 'eppuck'?" and that was in 1960!

-Wilson

On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 1:23 AM, Dennis Baron <debaron at illinois.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dennis Baron <debaron at ILLINOIS.EDU>
> Subject:      Correcting other people's English illegal
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> There's a new post on the Web of Language: Correcting other people's =20
> English illegal -- Comma Bombers guilty on federal conspiracy charges
>
> The Comma Bombers, better known as Jeff Michael Deck and Benjamin =20
> Douglas Herson, both 28, both English majors, both graduates of that =20
> hotbed of compassionate conservatism, Dartmouth College, were =20
> sentenced to a $3,000 fine and a year's probation by a federal judge =20
> last month for correcting an apostrophe on a historic handpainted sign =20=
>
> at the Watch Tower, near Arizona's Grand Canyon.
>
> The sign had been painted by the architect Mary Colter to introduce =20
> visitors to the Anasazi-style Watch Tower that she designed on the =20
> Canyon=92s south rim in 1933.  Interestingly, Colter had been a stickler =
> =20
> for detail: she handpicked every stone and placed it in the structure =20=
>
> to achieve the maximum impact.
>
> But the vandals didn=92t approve of Colter's attention to punctuation, =20=
>
> so they fixed a misplaced apostrophe and added a missing comma with =20
> WiteOut and markers. . . .
>
> Because the sign has historic value and is on a federally-protected =20
> site, these fighters in what some newspapers are calling the "war on =20
> error" were found guilty in U.S. District Court in Flagstaff of =20
> conspiracy to vandalize government property. . . .
>
> these budding Alex P. Keatons began their voyage of discovery three =20
> miles north of the start of Rt. 66, in Chicago's hipster-ridden Wicker =20=
>
> Park, where they unsuccessfully attempted to correct the sign outside =20=
>
> Milwuakee (sic) Furniture. . . .
>
> there are plenty of other language vigilantes eager to join the futile =20=
>
> effort to put commas in their place. . . .
>
> Correcting other people's language errors has long been a hobby of =20
> those English majors who feel the need to compete with =20
> environmentalists, premeds and social work students in the "make the =20
> world a better place" sweepstakes.
>
> Unfortunately, in terms of language, most people want to be correct, =20
> but they don't want to be corrected. In other words, you can correct =20
> all you want, so long as you don=92t expect anyone to listen to you. . . =
> .
>
> read the rest of this post on the Web of Language
> ____________________
> Dennis Baron
> Professor of English and Linguistics
> Department of English
> University of Illinois
> 608 S. Wright St.
> Urbana, IL 61801
>
> office: 217-244-0568
> fax: 217-333-4321
>
> http://illinois.edu/goto/debaron
>
> read the Web of Language:
> http://illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
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-----
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