I am a big Kevin Smith fan and, for me, Clerks will always be his magnum opus. If you have not seen it, better get a copy somewhere. If you’re too lazy and just want some spoliers, click here. From there, you might probably know who Randal Graves is. No, this post will not be about Clerks, but it will use one quote from the movie.
And for this post, I quote “There’s nothing more exhilarating than pointing out the shortcomings of others, is there?” React if you want, you know I’m right.
Hehehe.
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I do remember that back when I was in grade school, an English teacher of mine crossed out my “misspelling” of the word judgement. Okay, type it down on Microsoft Word and that spelling will get those wavy red lines. Chances are, Word is not set to UK English (jugement with the “e” is common in non-legal British English). But since, my teacher wasn’t aware of it, boohoo. Sorry Mr. Maximo, no dice. God, I would have loved to have proven her wrong in class. Never got the chance though.
Now, if you might recall my posts on call centers, their “accents,” and use of the language, you might label me as a prescriptivist. Sure why not? I’m the one trying to dictate how members of society. Sure Mr. Maximo, you are sooooo 18th century. Try stopping language flux, why don’t you? Huh, Mr. Language Scholar.
To some extent, yes, I am a prescriptivist. Part of my training requires me to do so. On the other hand I do want to keep an open mind on the many ways of how English is used here. Another friend has also suggested that I make a study on language use of call centers, to at least validate or debunk my claims. I do admit, they were generalizations based on choice encounters with call center agents.
In any case, I do try to shy away from a blow by blow discussion of morphology and syntax(words, phrase and sentence structure) is because I know that this is the area of language use where prescriptivism and descriptivism usually clash.
And, I do notice that there are blog critics who love to pinpoint lapses in spelling and syntax. “Hoy, wrong grammar ka, boy!” “God, your spelling is horrendooz!” This is even true for online writing and fanfiction comments. When people do not like the topic or happen to be on the other side of the debate, they tend to go “technical” and dwell on pinpointing lapses. Or could it be their way of making “constructive criticism.”
Every one who poses a critique will get critiqued back. Fair enough. Marxism in the works – thesis, antithesis, and then synthesis. In any case, I am writing this partially because of some grammar police comments. You might think, “Whoah, I think someone’s got his panties in a bunch.” Blame me and my anal-rentention issues. Oh yeah, point out my typo of “spoilers” too.
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