sashagoblin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sashagoblin) wrote2010-01-22 12:29 pm
sashagoblin) wrote2010-01-22 12:29 pm
Entry tags:
Linguistic Mission Statement, or why i talk nonsense in the way i do
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?
...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?
disjointed responses
I like your acronyms -- but partly because I enjoy the head-scratching mini-puzzle when an unfamiliar one comes up, which is probably not the strongest possible endorsement of them. And a few still baffle me (e.g. who is RWTCP? Or is it RTWCP?)
Of my LJ-friends who also do Proper Writing, I usually find their
Telegraphically-compressed LJ posts more powerful than their professional work. This makes me uneasy; I don't like circumstances where more work brings worse results, and would rather pretend they don't exist. The informality and succinctness of LJ posts seems to be part of the reason, along with trust in an audience and the lower need to explain everything.
Me? I don't much need abbreviations online, because I type about as fast as I think. Writing longhand, otoh, they're about the only way I'd ever get something written before I stopped caring about it.
Re: disjointed responses
Hah. My dad hasto edit science papers sometimes. They can be virtually incomprehsible. Hypocrits.:oP
more work brings worse results, and would rather pretend they don't exist.
it's not about more work, it's about style, lexis, technique etc. I'm damn sure you'd find one of my essaysinfiitely harder work thanlj,but that'scos lj isaimed drectly at you, whereas thedemands of acedmic stringency/publication eithos play into other formats...
RTWCP = robert the (my) wonderful clinical psychlogist :oP
Re: disjointed responses
Grammatical and incomprehensible can go perfectly well together;)
& as you said, "i don't need to use my own understanding of correct English to differentiate my intelligence/understanding from that of those surrounding me". It's presumably a more effective status marker when those around you are getting it wrong. Or more satisfying to prove you know something, if you've learned it with difficulty.
[or maybe scientists are just more pedantic. We've got a whole shooting gallery of two-cultures stereotypes here, folks]