Right and Proper

[Always Sunny]

So to bring everyone up to speed: I've got a thread going about the Eye of the World here on the forum that tends to get sidetracked now and then. One of those side tracks has been language. I thought, hey, why derail that thread when I can start a whole new one? And here we are.

 

First there was the idea that using the masculine pronoun as a default is sexist. I agree with that. I agree so much that I'd say it was true. It works to erase women. For example, say you've got four people in a room. Two men and two women. It is fine to say, "hey guys!" to them. But it would be a little weird to say, "hey girls!" "Guy" means both "boy" and "boys and girls."

 

Some wonder if this means that a language that uses the feminine pronoun as a default would be sexist, too. It would. But I can't think of any language that uses gender to be female-default. Certainly none of the Romance or Germanic languages. Maybe even all of the Indo-European family.

 

The other thing was about what is "proper" and "correct" language. You know, if it is okay to use run on sentences or improper subject-verb agreement or the wrong noun. I say there is no such thing as proper English.

 

The language has changed, bit by bit, over the last few centuries. Look at Shakespeare. Or at Chaucer, centuries earlier. Or go back to Old English and read Beowulf! Even during the American Revolution there weren't such things as the letter "J" and those U's and V's got all mixed up. Have you ever read Lincoln's personal letters? Dude can't spell worth crap.

 

But he didn't need to. The idea that there is a "right way" to do English came about about a century ago when a bunch of professors in Chicago couldn't read each other's handwriting. So they created a standardized way to write. This caught on (thanks to some clever marketing) when the Chicago Manual of Style got sold. The professor elitist types started using the "right way" to distinguish themselves from the common rabble. You know the rabble, right? They're the ones saying "ain't" and the singular "they."

 

Eventually teachers started teaching Chicago Style to kids in school and for a hundred years we've learned that there is only one right way to do English. And it's funny that the One Right Way to do English is exactly like the way old white educated men did a century ago. Deviate from that and you're wrong wrong wrong. Speak like a Valley Girl or an Appalachian hillbilly or an urban rapper and you're wrong. Speak with a strong Latin American or Indian accent and you're wrong.

 

Poopy, I say! I say there is no right and proper way to speak or write English. As long as you get your point across then you're golden.

[Mr Ares]

A lot of what is classed as bad english is, in my experience, an impediment to good communication. Saying that language has changed a lot over the years says nothing about whether there is a difference between good and bad english. Defaulting to male pronouns might be sexist, but the language is currently lacking a decent alternative, "he or she" being a little unwieldy and "they" seeming a little odd when applied to an individual. Maybe someone will get around to adding some gender neutral pronouns to the language.