[stylist] Keeping Up with Language Changes

[Donna Hill]

Bridgit and Nancy,
This is a great article. It reminds me of a wonderful book called The
Elephants of Style by Bill Walsh of the Washington Post. There's a lot of
humor in it and he advised using a bit of common sense about some of these
things. Language is ever-changing, and yet we insist upon imposing rules
about its use. Don't get me wrong; I love some of those rules -- though I
certainly don't care if I ever see another Oxford comma. Being consistent
covers a multitude of sins.

Bridgit, you mentioned the use of conjunctions to start sentences, and I
gather that you learned otherwise, as did I. It actually took me a while to
get over it, but I can now say that I have knowingly -- and with malice of
forethought -- used a conjunction at the beginning of a bunch of sentences. 

When I started , I felt the need to justify it, and this was the insight
that broke the ice for me. Sometimes, the words "and" and "but" are
emphasized in such a way as to make a new sentence the appropriate solution.
To me, there is a difference in meaning between the following two sentences.

"He complained about my cooking all through dinner, and he didn't even help
clear the table."
"He complained about my cooking all through dinner. And, he didn't even help
clear the table."

It's subtle and certainly either way gets the idea across, but there is a
difference, which could not have been rendered with the old rules. In part,
it's the comma after the "And." It stresses the word "and" and gives a
little pause that says, "Wait till you hear this one." 
Donna

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Bridgit
Pollpeter
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2013 8:31 PM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] Keeping Up with Language Changes

Thanks for sharing, entertaining.

I think it can depend on the type of writing as well as the personal style
of a given writer. When I went back to university in my late twenties, it
had become acceptable to write academic papers using first person. A decade
ago, this was still a big no-no.

And I think creative writing allows for a lot of room to experiment and
explore many of these so-called rules. That being said, being a
over-organized person who likes some things to follow an order of some form,
I still prefer to use some of these out dated rules. Like I just find it
irritating to hear and read people say things like, "I and Sara will go to
the store," or, "Can you give me and Jake the tools?" Just can't stand it.

And I think it has to be consistent. It can clearly be a mistake on the part
of the writer if the writing isn't consistent. But if it's obviously
consistent throughout a piece of work, then it is a style choice.

And, as you may have noticed, I've begun many sentences here with
conjunctions like and, but, or, which is now considered an acceptable way to
write especially in creative writing.

Happy writing to all.

Bridgit


Message: 6
Date: Thu, 16 May 2013 23:51:32 -0500
From: "NJ Lynn" <freespirit.stl at att.net>
To: "Writers partyline" <writerspartyline at bluegrasspals.com>,	"Style
	List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>, "Writers Chat"
<writers-chat at nfbnet.org>
Subject: [stylist] {Disarmed} This week's Laughing Stalk -- Keeping Up
	With	Language Changes
Message-ID: <2E6E33A33A394E91A2374E9EE9BAAA62 at nancyPC>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="Windows-1252"

This is from a weekly humor column, and, since it has to do with writing, I
thought I?d share it here. Enjoy muchly.

From: Erik Deckers
Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2013 11:43 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: [Laughing Stalk] This week's Laughing Stalk -- Keeping Up With
Language Changes

  

All of the grammar rules and dispelled myths in here are completely true,
including the thing about being able to use prepositions at the end of
sentences.




Keeping Up with Language Changes
Erik Deckers
Laughing Stalk syndicate
Copyright 2013

The English language is an ever-changing, malleable tapestry. It's always
changing and growing. Words that never existed even ten years ago are now
mainstream words that we use without hesitation. Words that existed three
hundred years ago don't mean what they once did, or we stopped using them
altogether.

Even the rules and styles we desperately cling to like a life raft, as our
language roils and churns beneath us, change on a whim.

As a writer, I'm constantly studying language and its changes that have
developed over the last nearly 30 years, since I was in high school.
I've learned that we hold on to our favorite rules with a manic fever.

"You can have my Oxford comma when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers."

It's funny to watch people sputter in anger when you tell them a word's
meaning has changed, or that a rule we learned in seventh grade English was
never right in the first place. You wouldn't believe how mad people get when
you tell them "it's okay to end your sentences with a preposition."

I love throwing one of those little language tidbits out there and sitting
back to watch people's reaction. Last year, I posted on Facebook that the
Associated Press said they were no longer going to prevent their reporters
from starting sentences with "hopefully." The level of stubborn anger from
people who said they weren't going to allow some dumb international news
organization to tell them what to do was hilarious.

I pointed out more than once that "this doesn't mean you have to, it means
the AP is not going to admonish their reporters over it," but these people
would have none of it.

And I've caused more than one gasp in a room when I'm giving a talk and I
say "you can end your sentences with a preposition." The rule was created by
a Latin scholar in the 1700s who tried to impose Latin rules on a language
that didn't follow those same rules. It has long been accepted by even the
most die-hard grammar snobs that saying things like "in what did you step?"
is the height of foppish pretension, and they all agree that this never
should have been taught in the first place.
But that doesn't stop the grammar bullies from reciting their 7th grade
English lessons about sentences and prepositions.

Of course, I don't have room to talk. I still get agitated when someone says
"she brought the drinks to Steve and I" instead of "Steve and me."
But despite my loudest shouts of "Steve and me. It's Steve and ME!" at the
TV news (some of the biggest offenders of this rule), some dictionaries and
style guides are starting to recognize that the "and I"
is Common Usage, and they're no longer loudly correcting people about it.

(Not me. I'm going to keep shouting at the TV as long as I can.)

Common Usage is that Get Out of Jail Free card when you're faced with angry
grammar bullies who feel the need to correct any and all grammar "errors"
even though they 1) haven't kept up with grammar changes since 7th grade,
and 2) often confuse style choices with grammar rules.

This is actually something I deal with on a regular basis. I hear from
would-be editors who feel the need to "correct" my work, and tell me when
I've made grammar errors.

"You can't start your sentences with 'and,'" they say.

"Actually, you can. It's an acceptable method in certain types of writing.
Besides, it's a style choice, not an actual hard and fast grammar rule."

"Nuh-uh," they say. "I remember when my mom gave my sister and I ?"
GAAAH! "? a book on grammar rules, and it said you can't do that."

I follow novelist Elmore Leonard's admonition to the grammar bullies about
how they need to keep their booger-encrusted fingers off his writing. He
said, "If proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can?t allow
what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of
the narrative."

And that has been my excuse for the last 25 years. Language is forever
growing and changing, from new words to new rules to new styles. As a
writer, I need to keep up with it, and just go with the flow. I can't cling
to old myths that should have never become rules in the first place.

Hopefully one day some young writer will respond to a grammar bully one day
by saying, "I happen to follow Erik Deckers' rules of writing. . ."


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