I cringed at writing that very title, with its double (well triple) negative (at least it logically makes sense) and good instead of well. Many of the points from "What Makes Good English Good?" made sense in terms of communication, but did not explain my problematic title. If I or anyone use words that are not considered "correct" it is still wrong, even though the meaning and communication is in actuality not harmed. For example, I would be surprised to find someone who was confused at the meaning of a sentence if who was used instead of whom (or vice versa). However, double negatives, though also annoying, do not make sense. In math (and logic) not a negative equals a positive. My question here, is why do we make such a fuss about good, proper English, especially in speaking? What is more interesting to me is that no one, including grammar extremists (myself included), speaks correctly all the time. (And yes there may be errors in this post as well). Writing is a bit easier because we can check ourselves, proofread, and oh yes, spell check! Considering all of this, why do we judge people who use incorrect grammar (or make grammatical mistakes, not speech errors) especially in instances that do not really impact meaning (good vs well,and who vs whom)?
Comments (2)
In my opinion, for the most part, people want to sound or appear intelligent. When there is judgment happening about someone or their use of language, we need to look at the context. Our society puts more expectations on our leaders or even in classroom settings when someone is giving a speech. The person speaking is supposed to be very knowledgeable about their subject, and our society looks down upon that person if their speech has blunders or is grammatically incorrect. I think that our society makes such a fuss about language because it's part of our identity. You create your own identity depending on your desire to fit into a particular group or class. Our society constantly judges people, and therefore is constantly judging their use of language. And since there is always judging happening, as a whole, we make a bug fuss about being grammatically correct to better our appearance.
Posted by Kate Walsh | February 29, 2008 5:04 PM
Posted on February 29, 2008 17:04
Maybe it isn't just the fact that it's not proper English that is bothering us. Maybe it's just the fact that the person speaking improper English is speaking differently than the person speaking proper English. Our society has always had a problem with things that are a little bit different, so maybe that transfers over to our language. Maybe we're just annoyed when listening to someone using improper English because we know that WE would say it differently.
Posted by Andrea Testa | March 1, 2008 11:03 AM
Posted on March 1, 2008 11:03