Thursday, September 17, 2009

Where rules of modern language come from....no not the stork

People like Warren Jones (a.k.a. Dr. Jones or just Warren) have their own opinions as to where the rules of the modern and ever changing language come from. Although Warren will always go towards his opinions and stubbornly hold on to them with all of his life, I have some of my own which he is reading right now, at this very moment.

As far as the prescriptive language goes...well it's pretty much dead now. People nowadays use mostly linguistic rhetoric, going with the evolution of the english language, rather than going what is literally correct. I believe that the rules established for these different dialects is where the person grows up. Now as non-exciting as this sounds, I believe I'm making a good point. When someone who is from Britain comes to Florida and speaks to someone who is as Floridian as you can possibly get, most likely, the Floridian is going to look at the British person as if they have no idea why they are speaking like that. Although the language that the Britain is speaking is entirely correct, the Floridian doesn't understand why he would take so much time to go through every syllable of every word instead of saying, "whutyagunadotanite?"

Peer pressure also takes its toll on the rules of the language. When someone in your peer group is trying to imitate the way that you speak because they try to fit in, you're probably going to immediately dismiss them. Through time and effort, the one that is trying to get into your peer group will learn how to say, "whutyagunadotanite?" so that that person will not be socially excommunicated. The underlying want to fit in will encourage a person to learn to speak a certain dialect if that is the means of not being entirely set apart from everyone else.

Although most people learn the rules as they grow up, the language can and will change on them...a lot. So to keep up with these rules most people imitate celebrities, television shows (which explains all the drama created in high school...other than the fact that females hate each other), and most imitatable, other people. The rules are not permanently set in stone on how some culture speaks a language, it's constantly changing. People imitate others, usually in their view of a higher class, so that they don't look stupid in front of everyone else. Language has essentially become a fad, a trend, a style that never stays the same.

Yep. That's what I've come up with throughout all of this ranting. The rules of linguistics are trends that no one wants to fall behind on for fear of becoming socially awkward. These changes can also come with culture, race, opinion, etc. In any case, no one wants to be left behind. We learn the rules out of fear.

1 comment:

  1. Holy freaking crap guys. We've got 4 days before this next paper is dead-lined and we've got a whole three unedited stories in our issue #2 folder. We NEED to meet before Thursday and do some major brain-storming + Story-writing if we don't want an F in our entire Comm 1 Honors class. Now I don't know about you guys, but I'd rather not have an F. I apologize for not taking the initiative earlier. If I don't have any responses by Monday Night I'm going to contact Sarah and we'll get together with an email letting you all know when and where so you can show up if you want. If everyone could please please Please go and get some stories before then that'd be fabulous.
    Yours in procrastinating,
    Ian Novak (contact me with the bccpinkpaper e-mail)

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