Use of the English Language (was RE: [MR] Your Women?)

[Denise Nelson]

Domenico wrote:
> when you limit our ability to convey our thoughts by
> declaring certain word choices off limits, you have
> the effect of simply silencing us. this is a far
> greater offense than imprecise words in a language we
> did not develop and are simply stuck with.

I recommend to you the following essay:  "Politics and the English
Language" by George Orwell from _Horizon_ April 1946.  It's been
reprinted in numerous places on the web, such as
http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/patee.html

A short quote (because he says it better than I could):

"Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have
political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence
of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause,
reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an
intensified form, and so on indefinitely. A man may take to drink
because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more
completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is
happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate
because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language
makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. The point is that the
process is reversible. Modern English, especially written English, is
full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if
one is willing to take the necessary trouble. If one gets rid of these
habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary
first step toward political regeneration: so that the fight against bad
English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of
professional writers."

Go read the essay!  It's good stuff and worth thinking about!

Lady Alienor
-- 
  Denise Nelson
  denisen at ftml.net