Like a Can Opener in a Worm Factory

Someone wrote this to me earlier: Actually, it’s kinda funny. I’m not an ‘English bod’ as it were, but I can’t stand abbreviations and acronyms, yet you being someone that essentially breathes the language, has no problem with them. Knowledge is power perhaps?


...and my answer turned into a bit of a mission statement. So i thought i'd inflict it on the world, especially that part of it on here who have to put up with my relentless acronymage!:

Language fascinates me, all the different things you can do with it, and becuse i can use correct academic English to a high level and get the opportunity to do so on a daily basis, i'm not interested in bringing it into everyday interactions where it isn't necessarily relevant or the most communicative option.

Because 'correct' English holds no terror or even particular interest for me, using it is like breathing, i love vernaculars and the sub-cultures that create them, and the strange argots that grow up around certain areas of expertise/activity/interest. i love catchphrases and the kind of shared linguistic reference points that establish intimacy. And i'm lazy - a lot of what i do is about cramming as much sophisticated meaning as possible into as few words as possible, and so when there's a phrase that comes up a lot (WWD; ateotd; iirc; ftr; ffr; offs, etc) it seems completely logical to use the acronym everybody will understand and plough on regardless, as well as making the sentence llook more interesting, less pretentious, etc. And i don't need to use my own understanding of correct English to differentiate my  intelligence/understanding from that of those surrounding me, because the vast majority of my friends are just as, if not more, intelligent than i am, and justas articulate in their own ways. (Maybe i do tend to be one of the most emotionally  self-aware/articulate, but that's about perception,not linguistic ability!) . So to get hung upon 'correctness' whose functionality is dubious when there might be superior methods of expressing precisely the same thing in vernacular or informal English would necessitate a pretension and an insecurity i really don't have. Not about my linguistic ability, anyway. :oP

 (Minor digression: And incidentally, there are some things you can only do with obscenity: English doesn't have another word as flexible as 'fuck', f'rexmple, or 'cunt'. You eiher have to use multiples - 'have sex with'? - or specify certain actions/parts - 'penetrate', vagina, clit etc - or go all coy - 'inside' - or use something like 'shag' which means different things in different english-speaking areas of the world. Only 'fuck' is universally recognised. Plus such words take added power from their supposedly taboo nature, despite being someof our most commonly-used words. Especially if you look like this tiny well-brought-up middleclass girl ad open your mouth and all this filth spills out. Anyway. End of digression.)

 So  short answer: yep. Knowledge - or rather fluency and its recognition - is power. :oP Maybe?