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Earth Day is now a day each year on which events are held worldwide to increase awareness and appreciation of the Earth's natural environment. Earth Day is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network and is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year.
The first Earth Day was held in April 1970, which was coincidentally the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin.
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For the last couple of days I have participated in an online discussion regarding the meaning of the term "Grammar Nazi." Some believe it to be pejorative and therefore an insult. Others accept it as being a badge of honor and indicative of one who valiantly wars against the improper usage of English words.
A few years back when I lived in North Palm Beach, Florida I answered a classified Help Wanted ad from a local book publisher that wished to hire a detail oriented proofreader. After a brief interview I was given a single page of typewritten text, a red pencil, and was told to proofread the page to the best of my ability. The time limit was thirty minutes.
Although I easily found and corrected most of the more flagrant punctuation violations, I failed miserably at identifying the many misuses of words. Such as:
1. " . . . the data shows . . ." [should be show, since data is plural not singular]
When I questioned the "data" thing, saying that due to popular usage, data has come to mean "the totality of data" which is singular -- well, I released a thunderstorm in that the job interviewer hotly told me that: "We expect our proofreaders to go by the book and correct ALL mistakes in grammar, and never to bow down to popular usage."
As you may have guessed, I did not get the job.
Ever since that time I have seen myself as having become a sort of domesticated grammar nazi.
There have been some who sneer at my tendency to correct their grammar mistakes, saying that English is a "living language" and is strengthened by changing the meanings of words by popular usage.
To which I say "CRAP!"
For example:
The word "unique" has always been defined as "one of a kind" -- not unusual, not strange, not exceptional -- and it therefore cannot be modified by degree. A unique object cannot be said to be "most unique" or "highly unique" just as it cannot be said to be "most one-of-a-kind" or "highly one-of-a-kind." But I hear it used that way often, especially by politicians, newscasters, and celebrities. Popular usage has denigrated it to the extent that the word's true meaning has almost disappeared. And that's sad. There is no other word to use in its place when one wishes to denote an object as being one of a kind.
And, if I am labeled a grammar nazi or an anal grammarian, all I can say is that I really don't care.
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WORD FOR TODAY
pejorative
adj.
Disparaging, belittling or derogatory.
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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Born April 22, 1937_____
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Keep the church and state forever separate.
--Ulysses S. Grant
your rant about grammar was not very unique
ReplyDeleteI know . . . still true, though.
DeleteThe first "Earth Day" was an attempt by the US government to divert and reroute the energy of the anti-war movement. I was as disgusted with the silliness of the plan then as I am today. Those government officials who wanted to save us from the crumble caused by Richard Nixon's neuroses turning quick toward psychopathy need not have worried so much as they did. Most university-centralized revolutionary hippies were by the mid-1970s busy with becoming insurance underwriters or corduroy academicians. They soon surrendered Junior's communal papoose -- earned by way of "Free Love" energy, combined with hormones raging -- for reasonable custody settlements and clean-cut haircuts.
ReplyDeleteThis is a conspiracy theory all my own, which is of course a contradiction in terms.
Love,
AVT
Very interesting. It would be great if you were to elaborate, write more on the subject , perhaps as a blog entry, or as an essay, or even merely for the fun of it, just as long as I were invited to read it. Thanks for the informative comment.
Delete