Having done my various stints as editor, copy editor, proofreader, and all-around language geek, you'd think I'd qualify for this community. And, in fact, I just HAD to weigh in on one of the discussions there when I went looking from this link.
That being said: knowing what's "right" and jackbooting people who won't or can't do it that way are, to me, two quite different things. I'm also a heretic in that I perceive language as inevitably in flux, and that all the pressures of "getting it right" are simply to moderate the speed of change, not the fact of it -- and allow communication to continue over longer periods of time and between more people. I think efforts like the Academie Francaise's determination to keep French "pure" are both doomed and puerile, but then I also get an enormous charge out of the artifacts of history that litter the English language. Still, I expect professionally published material to adhere to copy-standards, and even casual signs that are horribly wrong make me jump out of my skin and foam at the mouth.
And *that* being said, I had the post from -- was it yesterday? -- about how completely fucked up English spelling is, in part because of its history, and how grovelingly grateful I am to have NOT had to learn it as a second language.
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That being said: knowing what's "right" and jackbooting people who won't or can't do it that way are, to me, two quite different things. I'm also a heretic in that I perceive language as inevitably in flux, and that all the pressures of "getting it right" are simply to moderate the speed of change, not the fact of it -- and allow communication to continue over longer periods of time and between more people. I think efforts like the Academie Francaise's determination to keep French "pure" are both doomed and puerile, but then I also get an enormous charge out of the artifacts of history that litter the English language. Still, I expect professionally published material to adhere to copy-standards, and even casual signs that are horribly wrong make me jump out of my skin and foam at the mouth.
And *that* being said, I had the post from -- was it yesterday? -- about how completely fucked up English spelling is, in part because of its history, and how grovelingly grateful I am to have NOT had to learn it as a second language.
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You do realize that you don't pluralize by adding an apostrophe, don't you?
/nazi
Seriously though, while I'm not a community member, I have known the Benevolent Cranky Moderator online for some years now and she's good people.
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