[CLUE-Talk] Looks like our brains match \w+

[Jed S. Baer]

On 27 Sep 2003 09:27:07 -0600
"Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier" <jzb at dissociatedpress.net> wrote:

> Here's what I'm saying -- as a group of people, we have gone the other
> direction. That is, we used to have a cultural stigma attached to poor
> English usage. People who were unable or unwilling to use "proper
> English" as defined by the rules of the day, were looked down upon.
> Proper usage was encouraged, and precise usage was the goal.
> 
> That stigma is rapidly disappearing, if not gone. With a new set of
> cultural norms, the population as a mass is losing some of the ability
> to use English with the precision that was expected 20 or 30 years ago. 

And not only that, but it's actually reversed, at least in some contexts.
Witness the currently common usage of "spelling nazi" or "grammar nazi" as
derogatories. While I agree that sometimes it can be considered bad
manners to point out errors in usage, I do think that on the whole, the
long-term benefit of better communication is laudable. Yet another example
of "politically correct" gone awry -- it's demeaning to someone's
[intellect|status|whatever] to point up someone's mistakes, i.e. more
harmful due to damaging self-esteem, or something like that, than the harm
from their continued misuse. 

I'll jump in with a couple of my pet peeves.

Usage of "may" where "might" is called for. I grew up in a culture which
made the distinction -- Me: Mom, can I have a cookie?, Mom: Yes, you
*may*. Thus reinforcing the difference between permission and ability (and
no, it wasn't just my mother). "Might" is a subjunctive of "can" (IIRC,
it's been a while since I got deep into grammar/syntax) denoting
conditional ability. Thus, I'm always irritated when people use "may" when
they should be using "might". Clarity is the loser. Some years ago I
encountered the following in some software installation instructions,
"When installing {package} you may overwrite {file} ... ". There was
nothing in the surrounding context to indicate whether this indicated that
is was OK to do so, or a warning against doing so, i.e. an admonition to
backup the file.

Some dictionaries list "anxious" as synonymous with "eager". And, in fact,
if dictionaries document usage, this is correct. It also leaves the
language without a common adjective to connote a level of anxiety when
considering a future event. Yes, "anxious" might still be used in that
way, but most people will misunderstand such a statement, due to its
over-misuse.

jed
-- 
... it is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday
facilitate a police state. -- Bruce Schneier