|
De-lurking to weigh in on the side of English
teachers.
Words are the medium of thought as well as
communication. When we ignore rules of language by saying "you know
what I mean," we're eroding our ability to think as well as to communicate,
because thinking usually depends on communication. Socrates or Sherlock Holmes develop their ideas by speaking them to
another person. So do we, or otherwise, why are we in this
group?
An average American teenager and a philosopher can
have the same thought, but the teenager expresses it as vague, amorphous
mish-mash of imprecise words. He suggests the "flavor" of the thought,
while the philosopher expresses the thought precisely so that other people can
understand it. He does this by putting the idea into the accepted,
standard form, not some personal style.
Rules can be relaxed for casual, everyday
conversation. But you should know the rules and observe them when
we're trying to express ideas.. Can you imagine Socrates saying "Life isn't good,
if you don't think about stuff," instead of "The unexamined life is not worth
living."
Marco Milazzo
----- Original Message -----
|
