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Random Thoughts On The Decline Of English
Fred On Everything ^ | 010504 | Fred Reed

Posted on 01/06/2004 7:25:39 PM PST by Archangelsk

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To: sergeantdave
"went missing" makes me want to scream and claw my face. LOL
61 posted on 01/06/2004 9:59:27 PM PST by Conservababe
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To: FormerlyAnotherLurker
People used to be taught correct English, both written and spoken. and were made to use dictionaries. Unfortunately, that era seems to have passed.

Words are " magic ", the English language is filled with wonderful words, hardly seen or spoken today,which have been replaced with gibberish and/or slang.

Dictionaries are fun to read. :-)

62 posted on 01/06/2004 10:14:44 PM PST by nopardons
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To: Billthedrill
Ahhh... You’ve brought tears to my eyes. What lovely, warm pictures you bring to my mind.

My earliest reading came from being a child and with the neighborhood kids having a pool – somewhat novel then to my neighborhood – outside my bedroom window. For whatever reason (and that doctors couldn't figure at that time), I should not have been in contact with sunlight.

My dad, born to sharecroppers, would bring me a book once every two weeks or so to compensate the loss of sun.

He could not read.

He was, however, the greatest man I’ve ever known. He taught me not only the reasons it would profit me to search and learn, but the pleasure of reading itself. The importance of understanding others and different worlds, he stressed.

If, as you term it, "hunger" were the problem, we'd never see it. I still believe today that the problem is opportunity.

You were blessed with parents who wanted to see you educated, as was I.

The problem I have is that many "parents" today would love to see their own down in the gutter and would go so far as to place his/her foot upon that throat to keep that child there for the sake of a food stamp/welfare check.

And there's my question. "How do I blame any child for not having more opportunity -- no matter the form of opportunity?"

I apologise if this in rude form. I certainly don't intend it to be... just not sure how to say what I mean other than saying what I mean!

God Bless,

S.C.
63 posted on 01/06/2004 10:21:09 PM PST by SouthernClaire
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To: SouthernClaire; nopardons; Billthedrill
Cclaire, I don't buy the idea that people are too tired and busy to learn proper English. Nobody was more overworked and more busy than the generation that immigrated to this country at the turn of the century, and yet they taught themselves English without the assistance of ESL programs. No one was more exhausted than my father, who struggled to work, go to school, and take care of his elderly parents in the 1930s. He left school at 16, but though he was not a native English speaker, he honed his knowledge of the uses of English until he became a literate and skilled writer.

Similarly, if you read the letters written by ordinary soldiers during the War Between the States, you will find that they wrote with a simple grace and power not often found among the writings of today's college graduates. Please don't tell me that our ancestors of 140 years ago, those plain country boys, had more opportunities than today's ignorant millions, when they had no access to public libraries or the Internet or student aid or public universities.

No, if someone speaks in a crude manner today, that is very much a matter of his or her choice. People choose to speak and write like their peers instead of trying to better themselves.

64 posted on 01/06/2004 10:35:23 PM PST by Capriole (Foi vainquera)
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To: FormerlyAnotherLurker
complaints about the current state of the language have always existed.

THOUGH: modern music, e.g. rap, is abysmal!

LOL, no kidding! I guess it just depends what you're most sensitive to. It may be pomposity on my part but I'll always think "irregardless" is wrong no matter how long it's been around. What's worse is to correctly say something like "regardless of the consequences," and have some illiterate "correct" me to "irregardless, etc."

Yes, language is in a constant state of change. I try not to be pedantic because that's foolish. Still, it greatly concerns me that fine shadings and subtleties in literature and conversation, commonplace in the 50s and 60s, seem to have been lost forever. Maybe I'm romanticizing the past. But a large and important literary heritage seems to be beyond the grasp of many, maybe most, Americans today. I'm encouraged though that a fine wordsmith like Mark Steyn is so widely appreciated here on FR. And there are some fine writers in their own right here as well.

As for rap music, what's that? I get nearly all my music from recordings of my choice, and rap's not even on the list.

65 posted on 01/06/2004 10:40:34 PM PST by Bernard Marx ("Do what you are afraid to do." Anonymous.)
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To: Capriole
Correct. Being crude is one thing; ignorance another.

If I came to you today and asked that you pardon ten F-yous, then, indeed, my ill behaviour.

That’s not the argument I’m after, however. I’m after the argument stating that people choose to be at their means or beneath.

That, itself, makes no sense if you take in mind nothing above it ever having been established.


66 posted on 01/06/2004 10:52:09 PM PST by SouthernClaire
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To: Capriole
BRAVA , with a standing O !
67 posted on 01/06/2004 11:09:42 PM PST by nopardons
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To: SouthernClaire
There are many,today, in the black community, who, even though they come from middle class and upper middled class homes, say that being good in school/getting good grades, is " white " and refuse to work diligently at learning. There are even some whites, who follow this example and I am NOT talking about kids who are going to terrible schools.

John Kerry's use of the F word, to seem " hip ", is yet another example of the downward trend in the debasement of the spoken and written word.

68 posted on 01/06/2004 11:19:14 PM PST by nopardons
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To: Bernard Marx
My father had told me about his aunts decrying the literature of the '20s & '30s when he was younger much as he chastised my tastes in the '60s & '70s. And, still!
This, as "Take a Letter Maria" just finished and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" just started in the background. Rap rhymes with and is synonymous with crap in my dictionary.

"Irregardless" irritates me more than fingernails on a blackboard. (ooh, the spell-checker just offered to add that to the dictionary - no way!)
(Now playing, "I Can't Help Myself" by the Four Tops)
69 posted on 01/07/2004 12:18:56 AM PST by FormerlyAnotherLurker
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To: Archangelsk
Language changes. There's no sense in trying to stop it.
70 posted on 01/07/2004 12:20:46 AM PST by MattAMiller (Saddam has been brought to justice in my name. How about yours?)
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To: Archangelsk
continuous [doesn't mean] continual

I wouldn't blame the writers, necessarily.  This is from  Your Dictionary.com.

con·tin·u·ous

(click to hear the word) (kn-tny-s)
adj.
  1. Uninterrupted in time, sequence, substance, or extent. See Synonyms at continual.

71 posted on 01/07/2004 2:52:12 PM PST by gcruse (http://gcruse.typepad.com/)
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