Zeb_Carter
.-- - ..-.
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2006
- Posts
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When I was a youth, the common term was "feeble-minded." We weren't into PC back then.
That was the PC term back then. Before that they used Crazy as (insert comparative here).
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When I was a youth, the common term was "feeble-minded." We weren't into PC back then.
The problem with PC language, which is naturally well-intentioned, is that semantics cannot be controlled by edict. In the UK less able students were called Remedial for a while, which at the time was a neutral term. Other students quickly picked up on this, and to call someone a 'Rem' was a mortal insult.
Not learning this lesson, the PC brigade tried to choose an unambiguously positive term this time. 'Special Needs'. Everyone wants to be special, right? Well, trust me, when a 15 year old boy is shouting 'Are you Special or something?', as I used to see on a daily basis, you don't feel too privileged. Again, the word is left behind by the semantics ordinary users of English will attach to it.
Even words which aren't close to being adjectives fall to the same difficulty. At the last school I taught in, the most able students did three separate sciences. Slightly less able ones did joint sciences, worth two GCSEs. The less able still did a single science GCSE, and the very weakest did something called a BTEC, which was a vocational, practical science qualification without exams.
Within two months of this system being introduced, I would have students saying things like, "Sorry my essay's so BTEC, Sir, I ran out of time," or "Don't pay any attention to James, Sir, he's being a right BTEC today..."
Words and their meanings are perhaps the most democratic tool we have, and no government, however despotic, can quite control them.
Words and their meanings are perhaps the most democratic tool we have, and no government, however despotic, can quite control them.
Except that in some cases, it's much more accurate a description than "feeble" or "retard." That's where that well-meaning "special needs" phrase comes in to play. It is misused and abused and turned into a pejorative, sure. But only by distorting the meaning of those two words.An excellent example of what I was trying to say.
I think this statement is double-plus true.
Ha! Touche - though I think that at least the world of 1984 is, just about and for the moment, still a fiction.
Except that in some cases, it's much more accurate a description than "feeble" or "retard." That's where that well-meaning "special needs" phrase comes in to play. It is misused and abused and turned into a pejorative, sure. But only by distorting the meaning of those two words.
And those needs are so rarely met adequately anyway... I wish I'd had a label for that personality quirk of mine that made people ask me if I was a retard. And I wish I'd known that there are work-arounds for much of it. I always thought it was some kind of moral and mental laziness-- I didn't know it was Aspergers syndrome.
*shrug*
On the other hand, when people misuse 'literally', for example, it means that we are losing a perfectly good word, since no other word quite expresses what literally does, when used properly. Such a misuse detracts from, rather than adds to, the rich complexity of our language.
"Lily, the caretaker's daughter, was literally run off her feet."
... On the other hand, when people misuse 'literally', for example, it means that we are losing a perfectly good word, since no other word quite expresses what literally does, when used properly. Such a misuse detracts from, rather than adds to, the rich complexity of our language. ...
Would you please explain its proper use. I have avoided employing it in any of my stories for fear of misusing it.
... But sometimes people say things like "I literally froze to death." If that were the literal truth, that person would be dead and not complaining about the cold.
And then there's "virtually."
My head figuratively blows up when I read these misuses of "literally.""Literally" is the opposite of "figuratively," which is a figure of speech."
I jumped for joy." "He ate like a pig." "He swept her off her feet." That last one might be literally true if he was driving a street-sweeping vehicle and ran into her and knocked her down.
But sometimes people say things like "I literally froze to death." If that were the literal truth, that person would be dead and not complaining about the cold.
Your wish is my command.
The book is Our Marvelous Native Tongue: The Life and Times of the English Language by Robert Claiborne.
Well, it's a back-formation from dis-gruntled, so it was a sort of joke word - I've only ever known it used humorously:
"I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled."
(P.G. Wodehouse - master of the unhappy litotes. See also the classic "It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.")
publishing houses seem to have done away with editors