🚀 go-pugleaf

Goerwitz writes:
>connolly@memstvx1.memst.edu writes:
>
>>> When one learns a language in school that is not one's
>mother-tongue,
>>> one has to memorize a lot of rules that come naturally to a native
>>> speaker....
>>
>>My, we are getting nasty, aren't we?  And xenophobic to boot.
>
>Nasty?  But xenophobic?  Be serious.
>
>>...Kartik didn't tell us anything we didn't already know: that
>>American newspapers sometimes make dreadful mistakes, and that some
>>speakers of English (both native and foreign) don't write so well.
>
>That's not what he was saying at all.  In fact, he was objecting to
>US colloquial language, viewing it as a mangling of the the rules of
>grammar laid down by God.  The posting showed no appreciation for
>what language really is, savored of pomp and spite, lacked sound
>grammar and facile expression, and was placed in the wrong news-
>group to boot.
 
I stick with my charge of nastiness and xenophobia.  Kartik is guilty
of pomposity and failure to comprehend the nature of language; but far
too many of the postings here show the same trait.  And those who
rebuked him took the tack: how dare he, as a foreigner, attack American
English!  Being a foreigner has nothing to do with it.  If it did, most
of us would be confined to comments about one language only, and then
this board would be a dull place.
 
Finally, did Kartik pick the wrong board?  I don't think so.
alt.usage.english would have been right if he wanted responses from
pedants only.  To get a linguistic opinion he had to come to sci.lang.
Too bad all he got was some (partially deserved) abuse.

Leo Connolly