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#120668 01/21/04 02:35 PM
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The Vocabula Review's (http://www.vocabula.com/) slogan is: "A society is generally as lax as its language." What does that mean?

At the same time, I often find myself fence-sitting between the pre- and descriptivists. Is there a name for this?


OK, y'all in the peanut gallery, hush up.



#120669 01/21/04 02:40 PM
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At the same time, I often find myself fence-sitting between the pre- and descriptivists. Is there a name for this?

Prudent. Sensible. Infuriating.


#120670 01/21/04 02:41 PM
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>Is there a name for this?

wishy-washy
-joe p. (knut) gallery


#120671 01/21/04 02:46 PM
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"A society is generally as lax as its language."

I like it. It's so nicely lax its own se'f. Doesn't say whether a lax language produces a lax society or a lax society a lax language.


#120672 01/21/04 02:50 PM
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Perhaps they both come from the same cause? The society lax education.


#120673 01/21/04 02:51 PM
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Ugly is in the ear of the behearer. Someone recently went on a rampage against dawdle, comparing it to the sound of fingernails against a blackboard and "accept[ing] no excuses for" it when someone else said it was the perfect word for its job.


I generally don't mind people having adverse reactions to words; it's when they decide that the words in question should be stricken from the language that I object.

#120674 01/21/04 03:01 PM
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generally don't mind people having adverse reactions to words

me neither, but I start to get concerned when they make social value judgements (invariably proclaiming their own superiority) based on a pertickly word or usage.


#120675 01/21/04 05:20 PM
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The objection to "dawdle" expressed above reminds me (irresistably, obviously) of watching "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" a couple of weeks ago. This guy, from Bedford (which could explain a lot, I suppose) was asked the question "What is the word for lazy, slow speech?". The options were something like (a) Crawl (b) Drawl (c) Trawl (d) Maul. This guy simply did not know it and had to phone a friend or ask the audience, can't remember which.

If it had simply been that question, well, everyone can't know everything, but he had "loser" all over him. He'd used up all his options by the time he got to £2000 and went home basically empty-handed/headed at that point.

Why do people put themselves through that kind of thing? I'd never enter something like that because I can't be bothered boning up on British sports (booooorrrrring) or British pop music (but I repeat myself).


#120676 01/21/04 07:39 PM
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Faldage sez: "Then other words crop up to fill in the void and y'all complain about those."

And the Vicar replies: You are correct. I have no choice. It is right there on page 52 of the Curmudgeon's Job Description (2004 ed.).





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Ah. Must is a rough life.


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