Posted on 09/12/2014 2:13:42 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
Lauren Squires, a sociolinguistic professor at OSU, is distressed by the success of the "Word Crimes" parody from Weird Al Yankovic.
Professor Squires tut-tutted, Many linguists are shaking their heads and feeling a little hopeless about what the public enthusiasm about it represents: a society where largely trivial, largely arbitrary standards of linguistic correctness are heavily privileged, and people feel justified in attacking those who dont do things the correct way.
In his highly entertaining video, Weird Al does not hesitate to insult people who use bad grammar.
The professor thinks that Weird Als attitude raises deep and long-standing questions of social equity regarding class, education, race, age, ethnicity, gender, and how these relate to languages, dialects, and social registers .
The professor is all aghast at Weird Als approval of grammatical absolutes. Its almost as bad as being white. Clearly hes going to hell for two reasons now.
Id say the professor is running a scam. Every major language in the world has its high, middle and low variations, its slang, its regional variations. Thats a fact of life. Even semi-educated users of the language know about these subtleties. Many people shift their language depending on the people they are with.
But children do not know these subtleties, nor do they need to at the start. Heres what they need: to learn Standard English as quickly as possible. Basically, Standard is what the media and publishers do; its what the majority of upper and middle-class people do. Teaching anything else is not fair to the child.
Suppose you went to Russia to learn Russian. The teacher tells you there are three ways you can express a thought. All are acceptable. Your reaction, if you are smart, would be: Im just learning the language. I dont need to learn second and third choices. Tell me the one that will work in the majority of situations.
Isnt that obviously the more efficient approach? But of course professors dont like the obvious. They like sophistries, especially if they sandbag anything Standard or mainstream.
They want to use political correctness to justify claiming that all linguistic choices are equally appropriate. Educated adults knows this is nonsense.
But a kid in elementary school does not. If you tell the child there are no rules and anything goes, then you are crippling that person. You are stigmatizing that person.
Its as reckless as telling children they can drink as much soda as they want. Any amount is equally correct!
The professor is myopic. In real life, standards are NOT largely trivial. They are hugely important to anyone who wants to move comfortably inside a language, especially someone just starting out.
The public schools have stopped telling kids whats considered the correct way. That leaves everyone adrift. Weird Al is defending common sense. If sociolinguistic professors are feeling hopeless, thats a good development. Perhaps theyll remain quiet for a while, having done enough damage.
Theres no philosophical justification for the relativity they promote. This whole descriptive versus prescriptive debate is just a cheap piece of bad logic. When anthropologists study primitive cultures, theyre supposed to observe and describe. Theyre not supposed to dictate what the natives should do. The locals are of course the experts on their own culture. We outsiders are supposed to describe, not prescribe. Yes of course, as long as were in the jungle.
So then our far-left professors tried to pull a fast one, by blandly announcing that the same neutrality would be appropriate in New York City. We should ignore professors of English, editors, famous authors, literary experts of all kinds. Their opinions would be prescriptive and we cant have that. Why? Because, you know, we don't do that in the jungle! This sophistry is so lame you would think these professors would be red with embarrassment.
After students have learned all the rules, they can start breaking the rules and choosing among the rules. But in the beginning students need to know Standard English. They need to know what the best and brightest do. Anything else is a war against children, and against the society in general.
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Weird Al video -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc
"9: Philosophy Weeps" -- see second sophistry The Prescription is No Prescriptions -- http://www.improve-education.org/id13.html
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“Those who control language control minds.” Ayn Rand.
At the root, the professor is upset that usage of grammar, spelling, and punctuation can distinguish those who actually received a superior education from those who didn’t.
Super honcho Squires tut-tutted, Many lin'uists is shakin' deir haids and feelin' some little hopeless about whut de public endusiasm about it represents, dig dis: a society where largely trivial, largely arbitrary standards uh lin'uistic co'rectness is heavily privileged, and sucka's feel justified in attackin' dose who dont do doodads de co'rect way. Slap mah fro!
Hmmm... I must conclude that stupid is still stupid in any dialect.
The plural of "typo" is "typos".
No apostrophe.
It all started to go downhill in the 60’s when Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou were being taught as superior to Tennyson and Shakespeare.
Here in SF they would applaud somebody getting punished for “interfering with a protected species”. But is the bigger issue that Al was supporting the eating of meat? Happy that a poor person might be deprived a poor person of legal representation? Don’t leave me hanging here.
This professor needs a feet-in-the-air wedgie, stat.
Many linguists have no idea what they are talking about.
Gramma police! Gramma Police!
No, the professor is an idiot. When Weird Al is smarter than a "professor", it's hard to call them a professor.
My favorite episode...
Those typo’s are very possessive.
You have proved my point, well done!
We saw Weird Al in concert a few years ago. I highly recommend seeing him!
This professor’s whining about teaching kids proper language that might enable them to escape poverty reminds me of a study I read. Researchers in some Scandanavian country followed a group of kids in a rural area from infancy up until early adulthood. One finding was that kids who began speaking the standard language, as opposed to using the slang/linguistic peculiarities of the area, ended up going to college and moving to where they could pursue well-paying careers. This was spontaneous behavior among the kids, and began as soon as they learned to speak. Those who were destined for success spoke properly from the start.
"The progressive idea of manipulating language to manipulate populations is not new."
The Socialist/Communist governments in Europe did the same thing, but without to much sophistication. As soon as they gained absolute power, labeling people as antirevolutionary, antisocialist, anticommunist, anti-DearLeader, etc was good enough to get ready of them, and blacklist the rest of their family.
Pimp Squires tut-tutted, "Many linguists is bobbin they headz n' feelin a lil hopeless bout what tha f#@k tha hood enthusiazzle bout it represents: a society where largely trivial, largely arbitrary standardz of linguistic erectnizz is heavily privileged, n' playas feel justified up in comin' at dem playas whoz ass dont do thangs tha correct way."
Nope, still stupid. Possibly even more so. Assuming that is possible.
Yeah, that’s kind of what I had in mind.
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