Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Law Students Blogs -> Nuts & Boalts

Law Students

: Nuts & Boalts

English Snarks Misfounded?

The comments of a recent post about English suffering from AIM and text messaging got me thinking... The English language doesn't suffer by techno-shorthand at all; it becomes improved by it. Language is organic, and as societal needs require lingual evolution, language can adapt.

That's why I usually stay silent when people on this blog bitch about incorrect grammar (my need for conformity and acceptance outweigh my desire to fight). What makes grammar correct? Unlike other standard setting bodies (IEEE, ICANN, ISO and SAE come to mind), English doesn't have a group of people that decide right or wrong. Instead, something becomes "right" when the majority of the English-speaking society decides it's right.

The process usually goes like this:

1. A guy mispronounces a word while drunk at a party. His designated driver buddy hears it and tucks it away in his memory. 
   
2. The buddy uses it accidentally in front of a group of friends at the gym. 
   
3. The friends in turn use it, and eventually someone posts it in their facebook status (it has graduated to "obscure localized slang" at this point). 
   
4. Someone creates a really popular facebook group, or starts an internet meme involving the word (it has now just become "regular slang").
   
5. Celebrities around the world are using the word. 50 Cent dropped the term in his new song. People playing XBOX Live scream it at each other. Axe Body Spray uses it in commercials (it has now become "accepted slang").
   
6. The word gets uncool... everyone knows what it means, but no one uses it anymore (the term is now "old slang").
   
7. A really square, white, old, male politician uses the term (he's probably Republican) when railing against a new piece of progressive legislation. 98% of the population chuckles to themselves because of how "2006" the term is. The other 2% of the population (the ones with all the money) realize that a new word has been invented right under their noses; they panic and make every attempt possible to use the word, lest they be the last ones to use it. Jack Donaghy claims to have invented it. The pope uses it in his "bless the world, but curse abortion" New Years prayer.
   

I think (though I'm just guessing) the new word has become an accepted part of the English language between steps 4 and 5. Other people may put it elsewhere. The point is, English modifies itself (or we modify it) to best suit our current needs. To claim that English is harmed by changing grammar usage is to desperately grasp on to the standards of yesterday. The irony is that you never hear people bitch about the English of last Tuesday (a few yesterdays ago)... it's why no one cares that "color" no longer has a "u" in it, or that people say "who" instead of "whom". So when people complain about whether something "begs the question", join the rest of us silently snickering at how these people still care about the fossils of the English language, but don't say anything out loud, because being cool requires fitting in.

Full post as published by Nuts & Boalts on February 15, 2009 (boomark / email).