My sister MK, the college prof, just finished a marathon session of grading papers. One of her chief complaints was the following.
It's different from, as I'm sure you know. But it really grated for MK to have to read different then, over and over again.
I've given up going to the mat about using than as a preposition in place of the preferred from, because languages do evolve. If enough people make the same mistake in conversation, it becomes accepted usage, and eventually, it creeps into written work. I don't like it, and reading it causes me to lose respect for the writer, but it feels like a battle that's about lost.
But if I were a college prof getting papers infested with different then, I'd mark them all with an F.
After a day or two, I might allow resubmission. But there would have to be as much grief demonstrated by the students as I had suffered while reading.
8 comments:
Ok, I laughed out loud...
Oh pity the prescriptive grammarians on linguistic death row, locked in vain aristocratic struggle over form as substance slips away, unmourned.
They have been forsaken by Noam Chomsky, whose socialist descriptive grammar movement has sliced through their arcane syntactic dogma with the purifying sword of semantics, the triumph of what over how.
Different from, different then, what power hath a four-letter word!
O demon-possessed orthographomanes, repent now ere your fetish be recognized for what it is: a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Repent before the day of Judgment, when telepathy at last evolve to free Thought from the shackles of language, when defrocked you will know at last: how naked go the sometime nude.
Now wait just one minute.
"Prescriptive grammarian" is really taking things a little too far.
I'll cop to having arguably archaic standards. I'll plead nolo to the accusation that I am a language curmudgeon. I'll even grant that I (still) often softly correct errors on the fly (while pleading that lately, I have restricted said services to those who appreciate real-time editing).
But prescriptive grammarian? Not me.
Or, you know, maybe ...
Not I.
I gotta say,
>> how naked go the sometime nude
is an absolutely wonderful line.
>> how naked go the sometime nude
Robert Graves and I thank you. It is one of my three favorite poems, along with Dylan Thomas' "Do not go gentle into that good night" and Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et decorum est".
An honorable mention goes to Shakespeare Sonnet 138 (the gay version) that I just did not get in AP English but came to understand all too clearly from my ex:
"When my love swears that he is made of truth
I do believe him, though I know he lies,
That he might think me some untutor'd youth,
Unlearned in the world's false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that he thinks me young,
Although he knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit his false speaking tongue:
On both sides thus is simple truth suppress'd.
But wherefore says he not he is unjust?
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
O, love's best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love loves not to have years told:
Therefore I lie with him and he with me,
And in our faults by lies we flatter'd be."
"The gay version?" Isn't all poetry gay?
Ah, a joke in bad taste. Remnants of the hallway bullies in high school.
Thanks for giving the source for the great line, and for supplying some others.
Thanks also for reproducing No. 138. As I do clearly remember the ex, I found it especially touching.
You've converted me at last. As of this posting, I have a blogger account, making me at last a full blogizen. I have abandoned the inefficient polling technique for a maskable interrupt mechanism (maskable because my blog alerts filter into their own e-mail folder for perusal at my convenience). Now I just need to come up with my own material. The pressure is unbearable!
> "The gay version?" Isn't all poetry gay?
Writing and understanding poetry requires only a wounded soul and the inability to silence the little voice that keeps repeating "Maybe they're right..." Obviously, being gay in a straight world is an excellent way to acquire the above skills.
> Ah, a joke in bad taste. Remnants of the
> hallway bullies in high school.
Where did you go to school? PC High? You seriously need to get over your misomophylophilopseudokategorophobia (for non-Greeks, that's fear of being falsely accused of hating gays). Maybe if I did some straight-bashing you would feel more comfortable.
> Thanks also for reproducing No. 138. As I do
> clearly remember the ex, I found it
> especially touching.
We just watched "Noel" last night (Susan Sarandon, Paul Walker). Lot of wounded souls and hospital dying. I actually started crying. Ugh!
Yay! Dan has a blog!
Don't worry about pressure to publish, Dan. It's YOUR blog, and it's RSS-enabled. When you get to it.
We're all waiting, eagerly.
And, it must be admitted, with sharpened claws. ;^)
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