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USAGE AND STIGMATIZATION

by Don L. F. NilsenAnd Alleen Pace Nilsen

Eats, Shoots and Leaves

• The title of Lynne Truss’s book is ambiguous in speech but not in writing: Eats, Shoots and Leaves

• The subtitle of this book is: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

• Lynne glued an apostrophe to a stick and went to a theater marque to demonstrate that the title of the film Two Weeks Notice could be “easily corrected.”

(Smith & Wilhelm 47)

Frank McCourt• In the foreword to Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Frank McCourt

wrote:

• “If Lynne Truss were Catholic I’d nominate her for sainthood.”

• Then McCourt continues: “It’s a book about punctuation. Punctuation, if you don’t mind!”

• Smith & Wilhelm note the missing comma in McCourt’s first quote, and the fragment in the second. Note there is also a colloquial exclamation point.

(Smith & Wilhelm 57)

Winston Churchill

• Winston Churchill didn’t end a sentence with a preposition when he said: “This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put.”

• By following one rule, Churchill breaks another rule (obfuscation). Because it is so convoluted, this sentence has become famous. It illustrates the Smith & Wilhelm contention that:

• “Some errors might be more a cause for celebration than concern, for errors are often a signal of growth.”

(Smith & Wilhelm 58)

Smith & Wilhelm

• Smith & Wilhelm go on to say: “The more errors teachers mark, the more likely students are to retreat to simpler sentences.”

• They furthermore state that “many errors aren’t errors at all but are instead correct expressions from a different dialect.”

(Smith & Wilhelm 59)

Smith & Wilhelm’s Top Twenty Errors

1. Wrong word

2. Missing comma after an introductory element

3. Incomplete or missing documentation

4. Vague pronoun reference

5. Spelling error

6. Quotation misuse

7. Unnecessary comma

8. Faulty capitalization

9. Missing word

10. Faulty sentence structure

11. Missing comma with a nonrestrictive element

12. Shift in verb tense

13. Missing comma in compound

sentence

14. Apostrophe misuse

15. Fused (run-on) sentence

16. Comma splice

17. Lack of pronoun-antecedent

agreement

18. Poorly integrated quote

19. Hyphen misuse

20. Sentence fragment

(Smith & Wilhelm 65)

How Technology Affects Usage

• Smith & Wilhelm note that “Now that university students write papers using word processors, we don’t get as many spelling errors as we used to,

• But we get many more homonym errors.

• We think the reason is that students count on their computers to do their proofreading for them.”

(Smith & Wilhelm 124)

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“Its Academic, or Is It?”

• “If you’re 35 years or older, you probably identify a common grammatical error in the heading on this page.”

• “Younger than that and, well, you likely have another opinion: “Its all relative”—except, of course, for the apostrophe.”

• “Unfortunately, age appears to be the demarcation here.”

(Larson [2009]: 139)

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Avoidance of Clichés

…boggles the mind.

…bores me to tears.

…foregone conclusion.

…going down a slippery

slope.

…in broad daylight.

…in the foreseeable future.

…is on the bubble.

It goes without saying.

It’s not for me to say.

…literally.

…opening a Pandora’s

box.

…playing God.

…pushing the envelope.

…who can say?

Has thinking “outside the box” become such a cliché that it’s now “inside the box”?

(Pence [2009]:135-137)

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Computer Generation:More Words—More Grammatical Errors

• Patricia O’Conner says, “rather than being obsessed by error, we should nurture our love of talking about words, about language.”

• “Thanks to the computer, Americans are communicating with one another at a rate undreamed of a generation ago—and in writing.”

• “People who seldom wrote more than a memo or a shopping list are producing blizzards of words.

(O’Conner [2009]: 143)

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• “The downside of all this techno-wizardry is that our grammar isn’t quite up to the mark. We’re writing more, and worse, than ever before.”

• “The ease and immediacy of electronic communication are forcing the computer-literate to think about their grammar for the first time in years, if ever.”

• “ It’s ironic that this back-to-basics message should come from cyberspace.”

(O’Connor [2009]: 144)

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French vs. English Usage

• In his Growth and Structure of the English Language, Otto Jespersen said,

• “The French language is like the stiff French garden of Louis XIV, while the English is like an English park, which is laid out seemingly without any definite plan, and in which you are allowed to walk everywhere according to your fancy without having to fear a stern keeper enforcing rigorous regulations.”

(MacNeil [2009]: 66)

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Bad Usages in Literature

• In Hamlet, the King says, “Nor what he spake, though it lack’d form a little, Was not like madness.”

• In Othello, the Duke says, “Yet opinion…throws a more safer voice on you.”

• In Othello, Desdemona says, “My life and education both do learn me how to respect you.”

• In Julius Caesar, Caesar says to Brutus, “That was the most unkindest cut of all.”

• In Star Trek, the narrator says, “To boldly go….”

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• “It fascinates me (MacNeil) that axe, meaning “ask,” so common in black American English, is standard in Chaucer in all forms—axe, axen, axed: “and axed him if Troilus were there.”

• “Ernest Hemingway believed that American literature did not really begin until Mark Twain, who outraged critics by reproducing the vernacular of characters like Huck Finn.”

(MacNeil [2009]: 67)

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• We all speak differently in different circumstances. We have levels of formality in speech like in clothing.

• “There are very formal occasions, often requiring written English: the job application or the letter to the editor—the dark-suit, serious-tie language, with everything pressed and the lint brushed off.”

• “There is our less formal out-in-the-world language—a more comfortable suit, but still respectable.”

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• “There is language for close friends in the evenings, on weekends—blue-jeans-and-sweatshirt language, when it’s good to get the tie off.”

• “There is family language, even more relaxed, full of grammatical short cuts, family slang, echoes of old jokes that have become intimate shorthand—the language of pajamas and uncombed hair.”

• “Finally, there is the language with no clothes on; the talk of couples—murmurs, sighs, grunts—language at its least self-conscious, open, vulnerable, and primitive.”

(MacNeil [2009]: 68)

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Indirect Language and Politeness Phenomena

• “When you are at a dinner party and want the salt, you don’t blurt out, ‘Gimme the salt.’ Rather you use what linguists call a whimperative, as in ‘Do you think you could pass the salt?’”

• “Yes, our point is to request the salt, but you’re doing it in such a way that first takes care to establish what linguists call ‘felicity conditions,’ or the prerequisites to making a sensible request.”

(Pinker [2009]: 72)

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• “The underlying rationale is that the hearer not be given a command but simply be asked or advised about one of the necessary conditions for passing the salt. Your goal is to have your need satisfied without treating the listener as a flunky who can be bossed around at will.”

• “In an episode of Seinfeld, George is asked by his date if he would like to come up for coffee. He declines, explaining that caffeine keeps him up at night. Later he slaps his forehead: “’Coffee’ doesn’t mean coffee! ‘Coffee’ means sex!’”

(Pinker [2009]: 73)

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A Usage Test

• 1. Find all of the “incorrect” usages in the following sentences.

• 2. Using metalanguage (e.g. “infinitive,” “past participle,” etc.), explain each.

• 3. Rate each “incorrect” usage from 1-10 in terms of stigmatization.

• 4. See if you can find any usages with reverse stigmatization—usages where the “correct” form is more stigmatized than the “incorrect” form.

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1. He decided to never again loan money to a person who ain’t got no security.

2. I will always choose the piece of cake that has the least calories.

3. That was the exact person who I was thinking about.

4. If I was able to drive slower, perhaps I might could avoid getting speeding tickets.

5. She done all the work, but he don’t appreciate it.

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6. These here books are different than them there books.

7. Dey about ready to study dey book.

8. Is this John book or yourn?

9. He drunk the most fastest of anybody there.

10. She been dancin all night.

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11. We was answering as good as anybody else.

12. He hurt hisself yesterday when he jump off the roof.

13.He was open a bottle of wine while him and me was called over the loudspeaker.

14. Dose two boy very tin.

15. I done been finished before anyone knew it was me.

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16. Wasn’t it the magnificentest movie youall had ever seen?

17. She had learn to answer “No” irregardless of the question.

18.He thought the boid be purty.

19.He bought a SHOWance policy from the POlice academy.

20. Dey a lot of eviDENCE that everyone forgot dey homework.

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21.Can I go to the bafroom?

22.The reason he a rat fink is because he only done half of his homework.

23.My work finished, but I used to could finish it faster.

24. I going to school early because I’m disinterested in staying home.

25.We divided the cake between all five of us, just like Paul do.

26. Walking briskly to school, the hospital suddenly came into view.

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!CONTRADICTIONS TO EXPLAIN

============================== 1. Don’t use no double negatives.

2. Make each pronoun agree with their antecedent.

3. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.

4. Don’t write run-on sentences they are hard to read.

5. Don’t use commas, that aren’t necessary.

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!!6. Try to not ever split infinitives.

7. A preposition is something which you should never end a sentence with.

8. Correct spelling is esential.

9. Proofread your essay to see if any words are left.

!!!Sign on an office door:

“DEPARTMENT OF REDUNDANCY

DEPARTMENT.”

Usage Web Site:

The The Impotence of Proofreading (Taylor Mali):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_rwB5_3PQc

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References # 1:

Algeo, John. “What Makes Good English Good?” (Clark, Eschholz & Rosa [1998]: 723-733).

Birkerts, Sven. “Into the Electronic Millennium” (Clark, Eschholz & Rosa [1998]: 749-762)

Clark, Virginia, Paul Eschholz, and Alfred Rosa. Language: Readings in Language and Culture, 6th Edition. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.

Eschholz, Paul, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark. Language Awareness: Readings for College Writers. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009.

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams. An Introduction to Language, 8th Edition. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007.

References # 2:

Larson, Charles Larson. “Its Academic, or Is It? (Clark, Eschholz & Rosa [1998]: 734-736, Eschholz, Rosa & Clark [2009]: 139-141).

MacNeil, Robert. “English Belongs to Everybody.” (Eschholz, Rosa & Clark [2009]: 65-68.

National Council of Teachers of English. NCTE Resolution on “Students’ Rights to Their Own Language.” Retrieved March 7, 2006 from http://www.ncte.org .

Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen. Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Humor. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000.

O’Conner, Patricia. “Like I Said, Don’t Worry” (Clark [1998]: 737-739, Eschholz, Rosa & Clark [2009]: 143-145).

Pence, Gregory. “Let’s Think Outside the Box of Bad Clichés.” (Eschholz, Rosa & Clark [2009]: 135-137).

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References # 3:

Pinker, Steven. “Words Don’t Mean What They Mean.” (Eschholz, Rosa & Clark [2009]: 71-74).

Schuster, Edgar. Breaking the Rules: Liberating Writers through Innovative Grammar Instruction. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2003.

Smith, Michael W., and Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. Getting It Right: Fresh Approaches to Teaching Grammar, Usage, and Correctness. New York, NY: Scholastic, 2007.

Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. New York, NY: Gotham Books, 2003.

Weaver, Constance. The Grammar Plan Bolok: A Guide to Smart Teaching. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2007.