Linguistic Auschwitz
January 3, 2010
by Alex
1 comment
Lake Superior State University recently posted a list of their banished words for 2010.
The list includes words in popular use right now such as “unfriend,” “tweet,” and “sexting.” The list continues to argue in favor of prescriptivism. Promoting a standard language to address miscommunication is one thing. “Banishing” words is something else.
What I don’t understand is that LSSU has an English program which I expect would at least acknowledge language change as part of linguistic development.
It’s interesting for such an institution to offer a totally different stance compared to institutions that acknowledge linguistic creativity like Oxford with its Word of the Year.
And guess what was 2009′s Word of the Year?
