hopefully

[Jonathan Lighter]

I agree with the students.

The "rules" allow for more rapid and efficient comprehension, and they also
force writers to think more clearly and carefully.  Some of the so-called
"rules," like "hopefully," are either groundless, inconsequential, or
patently obsolete. (When I was in high school, it was "will" and "shall"
and the use of "contact" as a verb; I'm sure I could think of more.) The
teacher can ignore such rules ad lib:  part of the job is using your
judgment.

The idea that teaching composition and teaching descriptive linguistics are
almost the same thing was a fad forty years ago.  It made little sense then
either.

The confusion began when pedagogues learned belatedly that some spoken
social dialects (notably AAVE) have some variant  rules and that inner-city
kids were used to following them. The previous, race-and-ignorance-based
supposition was that they were just stupid.

Teachers need to know the basics of linguistics so they can offer clear and
effective explanations when necessary.  But I can recall a time when it was
argued (at least by grad students on my campus) that freshman comp was just
another attempt to make potentially brilliant young people, who supposedly
had an inborn ability to write like angels, conform to the arbitrary and
oppressive rules of the DWEM.

 JL

On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 9:57 AM, Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
> Subject:      Re: hopefully
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 4/6/12 12:00 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> > Unfortunately, in my experience the use of this and other similar cases =
> > gets through to about 10% of the class. The other 90 either remember or =
> > not the right answer for the midterm but go on and asking which uses are
> =
> > correct and which aren't in the kind of absolute sense assumed by =
> > prescribers. Hopefully, I'll figure out a way to increase the proportion
> =
> > who get it but I'm not too hopeful I will.=20
> >
> >
>
> Prescriptivism is easier for students: they want to know the rules to
> apply. They want them to be simple rules.
>
> I had my comp. students read Nunberg's "The Decline of English" (they
> all thought he was arguing that English grammar is declining) and Foster
> Wallace's "Tense Present" and gave an essay question asking them to
> argue whether English comp. teachers should use a prescriptivist or
> descriptivist approach. They all argued for prescriptivism.
>
> --
> ---Amy West
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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