Should the dictionaries adapt to the new IM / SMS words / grammer?
NO! It shouldn't. Perhaps there can be 'internetspeak dictionaries' that contain all the terms, but we don't want to reduce the language, not reduce it. That makes everything so much harder. It's not real, it's just stupid and pointless. It's unprofessional. English is a perfect, developed and perfected. We don't need to screw it up. And it's not the norm. Not everyone writes like that. There are many literate people. It's only the norm for lazy people, and it'll lead them into incompetence. You're a prime example. You don't know much about /grammar/ because you speak like that. You've abandoned spelling. Grammar is spelled with an a, friend. Ever read 1984? Let's veer away from a world like that and your modern day version of 'newspeak'.
Does slang ruin the English language?
No, slang adds spice and culture to the English language.
Writers: Are you a grammar/spelling freak in real life as well as in your writing?
Dax, you would laugh if you ever saw inside my head when I'm at work! Okay, that sounded way crazier than I intended. But, I work in a place where I get emails from real estate agents all the time, and half of them can't even write a proper sentence in English. It's all I can do to not email them back a list of mistakes. I think I hate it because it's NOT THAT HARD! I mean really, the rules are simple. We learn them in elementary school for a reason. BQ: Word misuse, I'd say. You're = your, we're = were... etc. Again, it's not hard. Use the ''re' version if you're actually saying, 'you are or we are'. See what I mean?
Why are some people suddenly believing that racism is prejudice plus power, when the definition of racism is simply prejudice based on race?
The role of “race” in the USA since it was developed as a conscious scheme to justify a racialized slave regime has been about power. It was about a set up that subordinated people of African ancestry to justify a system of super-exploitation of them as a labor force. (And a different form of racialized treatment was used to push American Indians off lands desired by government for business interests like mining and lumber companies and real estate speculators.)When a group is racialized this means there are social practices that shut them out from resources like jobs and housing, and permit them to be treated worse. So this restricts their freedom in certain systemic ways. This is all about power.Back in the days when the racial caste scheme in USA was backed up by laws and government policies, the power dynamics were pretty obvious. Like not providing home loans if you’re not white (the former general practice in the American real estate and banking industry, with federal government backing).This set up can even survive without people necessarily having overt race prejudice. If the only people who hear about jobs are the relatives and friends of white managers and employees, that’s affirmative action for whites.Companies that take advantage of higher unemployment rates for black and Latino people and their difficulty finding jobs, can pay them less — even if their managers aren’t overtly race prejudiced.Reducing racism to overt prejudice is looking just at the surface.
Why is there so much negativity against states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal on social media?
The background of this kind of massive hate content goes back a few years.Lets get back about 2 and a half years, elections of Bihar.Just after BJP bit the dust in the hands of Grand alliance, whole media, social handles, BJP spokespersons, their ministers, party members ans whole IT cell machinery started a mega level smear campaign against Bihar government, terming it as a JUNGLERAJ 2.0 (Law less land part 2). Even though Nitish kumar, erstwhile BJP ally then became Chief Minister, BJP continued to create massive negative campaign in form of electronic media and social handles against the grand alliance governments.Suddenly, when Nitish kumar switched sides and became NDA ally earlier in 2017, whole Bihar has become an ideal model of governance. Although all the social indicators regarding crime have been breaking all time records. Suddenly everything has turned magically in Bihar.Now coming to Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal etc. These states are almost unbreakable bastions of other parties. BJP, on its own can’t enter these states in mainstream.Every one in India knows TN and Kerala have far better HDI and socio economic credentials then whole India, the smear campaigns like that of Jungleraj wont work.BJP’s think tank is trying to use it’s brahma astra(Final weapon), Communal division to enter these states. Here comes the time tested formula of divisive politics.BJP has tried every trick in trade, they circulated fake pictures of “atrocities” by “non hindu” communities, one of their national leaders even posted a photograph from a movie scene, passing it off as a atrocity by non hindus.In kerela too, BJP leaders and workers go and eat beef, but try to get a bill of mutton or something else, just to show that no Hindu eats beef.This is a win-win situation for BJP, they may or may not succeed in these states but this kind of fake smear campaigns keep their core constituency : Sentimental-Gullible Hindus happy.So, The pattern is almost clear, wherever BJP is unable to enter, that state will suddenly start having “atrocities” on hindus.This kind of mega scale content creation will become more and more prominent and massive as the 2019 elections come near.The pattern and agenda is self explanatory for all states, either fall in line or we’ll make you fall !DVD
Can I invent gender neutral pronouns for a book I am writing?
Language is changing constantly, but the changes need to make sense in the context of your novel. Think about books that have used language as an integral part of the story. Winston, in 1984, was working on a dictionary of Newspeak. But none of the characters really spoke it. Alex and his droogs in A Clockwork Orange, spoke their hybrid slang Nadsat so well that it takes time to adjust to the language every time you pick up the book. They live the changes that the language is designed to reflect in their society.As for gender neutral pronouns. you should feel free to make up any that you wish, and as many as you wish. One of the problems we have in adopting them right now is that there are too many for people to understand why a person might prefer one set over another. And change may take longer than you think. I was in college when feminists first began insisting on Ms. as a marriage neutral form of address, back in the early 1970s. It still hasn’t completely permeated everyday speech or formal writing. Some have adopted it with enthusiasm, while others, especially designers of forms, insist on making us choose from Miss, Mrs. or Ms. From this perspective, 2060 isn’t really that far away.Myself, I like to use per, pers, perself, simply because it sounds like person, which makes it easy to remember. But not everyone agrees with me, so if asked, I use what each individual prefers. perhaps you could have some indication of class, politics or other distinction based on which pronouns you use for different characters, and let your readers figure it out.
Is saying "climate change" a code word like "diversity" or "social justice"?
. Good question. I think the template here is eugenics, which flourished unchallenged as a pseudo-science for so long as it made extensive use of suitably vague and ill-defined terms as "feeble-minded" and "virtuous" and "hard-working" (which terms are essentially qualitative judgements, not scientifically quantifiable except in spurious ways). Likewise, climate change takes on the mantle of eugenics and political correctness and distorts and misuses soi-disant 'neutral' language to pervert science to use it further an agenda (social and environmental reform). Depending on your political views, there's nothing wrong with reform, but there is something very wrong with reform masked as objective scientific reality when it's nothing of the sort. .
If "women" is now spelled "womyn" to show resistance to patriarchy, how about we also change "person" to "persyn"?
At my school the word formerly spelled as "women" is now "womyn." I have been thinking though that patriarchy does manifest itself in other ways, one is with the spelling of the word "person." The word contains "son," another indication of patriarchy. What if we changed it to the more gender neutral "persyn" as not to exclude? To change society we need to change our language.