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I have my own long, long column I'm working on (for TechCrunch, no less) on this topic. Nice to see Jon chiming in, but I think he dismisses the usefulness of t
by devindotcom 13y ago
I have my own long, long column I'm working on (for TechCrunch, no less) on this topic. Nice to see Jon chiming in, but I think he dismisses the usefulness of the type of essentially formal prose being replaced by more conversational stuff. If you ask me, it's important to consider the strengths of the old way as well as the new one, which is what I'm attempting to do (4000 words and counting...).
Also, I disagree with the idea that SWE, or however you like to define it, works as a "mask." I express myself best in that language, personally, and I suspect many others do too. Conventional, "prescriptivist" English is to me very powerful, because the words all have agreed-upon meanings and relationships -- when you break those down, you allow new modes of expression but you reduce cointelligibility.
- elag 13y agoAnd we call that poetry.
- baldurrdash 13y agoYep: http://www.waywordradio.org/mezangelle_1/ http://www.waywordradio.org/mezangelle_1/.
- elag 13y agoOh, code poetry. 'Ni code, ni poetry' &c.
- ndeine 13y agoShould we not be bending these cold, standardized, "agreed-upon meanings and relationships" anyway? Is that not what the great English authors have done? Also, the title for this article is god-awful. All of the meme plugs make his point hard to understand, not easier. There is tremendous distinction between stupid quips that can be dropped anywhere and creative use of the English language. The author seems quite fond of the former.
- philosophus 13y agoAgreed, if you are trying to understand the topic and not the author, then injecting non-standard usage and "personality" is simply a distraction. There is something narcissistic about believing your writing should reflect you, rather than your topic.