Bunches of text: Trans: Prefix or Adjective? →
…Thank you for this…succinct and concise.
this is pretty cool.
(the only thing i have a problem with is that probably a linguist wouldn’t be telling people what was correct, instead figuring out what people were saying and why. but derp.)
Think of it as the intersection of…
i agree it’s an intersection of linguistics (in a very narrow sense of the word) and activism, and i don’t think that a linguist shouldn’t be making value judgments but i don’t think that a Theoretical (Socio)Linguist, coming from within the bounds of the field known as Linguistics, would be making judgments on what should be said based on what is “grammatically accurate” or what “makes sense.”
based on what is kind? based on what is compassionate? absolutely. but linguistics is inherently a field within which one does not make judgments based on presupposed prescriptive grammaticality, and doing so in the name of activism, no matter how well-meaning, is very dangerous. AAVE is also grammatically incorrect and “makes no sense” - and i doubt very much that you would suggest that speakers of this dialect should “fix” their speech. deeming speech inferior due to prescriptive grammar rules is a weapon historically used against oppressed groups. using it as means for other ends gets rather wiggly, as i’m sure you understand. it’s one of those “well there goes our leg to stand on” things.
like i said, it was my only problem. and it really wasn’t a big one - mostly silly, really. i get a bit “shall we taketh this outside? verily, i wish to interact with ye in the act of fisticuffs!” sometimes when it comes to linguistics. (i once had someone inform me that my degree was no more than a glorified game of scrabble. it was an interesting moment for both of us.)
(i should add that i agreed with your conclusion, and it’s the way i refer to trans people in my personal life.)
(Abbreviation note for those unfamiliar with it: AAVE is African American Vernacular English)
Wow. Good points. My bad. I want to re-emphasize that I am an *amateur* linguist/grammarian/language geek, where as you are clearly the professional here. My degree is in Computer Science, which while it does share some very important threads with linguistics (<3 Noam Chomsky), does so in a way that is not terribly useful here.
So, yeah. My apologies. Your points about prescriptive grammar as a tool of oppression were spot on, and should be
I do disagree with one point:
it was my only problem. and it really wasn’t a big one - mostly silly, really.
I’d say it was a pretty significant problem, and it is not silly at all. Reading back over my post, I was pulling some privileged shit with the prescriptive grammar, and you called me on it. It was the wrong angle to attack the problem from. Thanks for taking the time to engage with me.
(via budgiebazooka)
