Horrid, horrid day at the office, with too many people assuming that just because I've managed to drag my sick self in that I can obviously operate at my usual 110% capacity. Someone please hire me away from this place! Now that I can finally breathe a little (a relative term, as chest pains are a major symptom today) I had a chance to take another look at the comments engendered by yonder Southern Belles/We're All Actually Purple States post from yesterday. Good job my husband warned me he'd been commenting there! Now I'm sure y'all know why it's never a good idea to assume that, just because we share a soul, we share a brain as well...
Anyway, what struck me most was how defensive a couple commenters seemed to get over the suggestion that one of the things that so-called elitists might think about doing when dealing with folks who don't consider themselves elitist is cutting down on what we used to call "ten-dollar words" (ah, remember when ten bucks meant something more than, what, a quarter tank of gas?). And part of me sympathizes. I love words. I've loved them ever since I was a kid, doing crossword puzzles and playing Scrabble with my mom. My favorite comedy troupe is The Firesign Theatre, who love wordplay as much as their Goon Show influence would attest. I majored in English and Linguistics in college. I still use a thesaurus regularly. Heck, you can't be a writer and not love words, can you?
So hey, chill, I'm on the side of words. Big ones, small ones, vocabulary she is my friend! But part of knowing how to use words is being able to figure out which ones to use when. Take jargon, for instance (please!). If I said "I really hate it when people accuse me of said-bookisms" to someone who isn't a writer or involved in editing or publishing, I'm liable to get a blank stare, so I find a different way of putting it (which is why I hate it when people accuse me of said-bookisms, but that's neither here nor there). If I were to tell you of my day getting C of O's from the B of B, you probably wouldn't know what I'm talking about even if you worked in my office. If I were to throw about high school debate terms, even ones you might think were pretty easy like "straw man," to people more used to having conversations than debates (or even "dialogues")... well, you see where this is going.
With some plain-speaking folks it goes beyond "fancy" words or jargon. Even employing more formal grammatical habits like "if I were" rather than "if I was" or not ending sentences with prepositions... well, some folks would understand you right enough, but you'd sound funny to 'em. You can lament the death of proper structure until the cows come home (did I mention I was a long-time subscriber to the Underground Grammarian?), but it's beside the point, which is that, if you really want to talk with people to find common ground, it's probably a good idea to have enough common courtesy and common sense to know how they talk, and make appropriate adjustments. And I think this is all Amanda was saying in her original don't-mess-with-Texas post anyway. As much as we may not cotton to it, W's lavish spread in Crawford is what's known as a ranch in those parts. Like South Fork was, y'know?
Now, as I see it, the danger here isn't that we edumacated sorts will have to dumb ourselves down in order to communicate with anti-elitists from any geographical locale, but that we'll sound dumb trying to do it. Amanda may very well be shaking her head at my use of phrases like "cotton to" above, although y'all can often get away with things in writing that y'all can't when speaking (I don't pronounce "y'all" nearly as well as I write it!). As a middle-aged white Jewish woman I jump immediately into self-parody any time I even attempt hip-hop phrases (true dat). But see, I don't think that's what plain-speech folks are expecting anyway.
Our language is blessed with a truly immense vocabulary. If you truly want to communicate, there's no need to use it to browbeat or intimidate others, or to score points, or to show off, or to "hear yourself talk" without regard to your readers or listeners. If you truly want to communicate, there's always a way to say something directly without putting on airs, without sounding like you're doing all sorts of verbal gymnastics to please some would-be opponent (again, that's the debate mentality at work, plain-speech folks aren't the enemies of edumacated sorts), and without compromising your love of language (in fact, if you love language, this shouldn't be difficult at all).
Sometimes, all it involves is being a good listener first, then responding in kind. And not being a boor and reacting like you're threatened, or like someone's trying to take away some implicit entitlement, if they suggest you vary the way you talk toward situation-specific conversations (which are, after all, not All About You).
Update: Carla weighs in as well, although I should point out that picking on the specific ten-dollar word "ruminations" was a goof on myself, which context was kinda left out of her excerpt. And I agree with her that we should never let the idea of being smart or educated be seen as a bad thing, the way the current administration is trying to do in so many ways. It's actual elitism that's bad, and the right is just as elitist, particularly Mr. Harvard C+ who needs to keep a "balanced life." There's a difference between being educated and worldly and flaunting same in conversation. Although I admit, my being married to a Brit has peppered my conversation with way too many "bloody"s and the neighborhood kids still look at me strangely when I flip them the two-fingered bird.
Anyway, what struck me most was how defensive a couple commenters seemed to get over the suggestion that one of the things that so-called elitists might think about doing when dealing with folks who don't consider themselves elitist is cutting down on what we used to call "ten-dollar words" (ah, remember when ten bucks meant something more than, what, a quarter tank of gas?). And part of me sympathizes. I love words. I've loved them ever since I was a kid, doing crossword puzzles and playing Scrabble with my mom. My favorite comedy troupe is The Firesign Theatre, who love wordplay as much as their Goon Show influence would attest. I majored in English and Linguistics in college. I still use a thesaurus regularly. Heck, you can't be a writer and not love words, can you?
So hey, chill, I'm on the side of words. Big ones, small ones, vocabulary she is my friend! But part of knowing how to use words is being able to figure out which ones to use when. Take jargon, for instance (please!). If I said "I really hate it when people accuse me of said-bookisms" to someone who isn't a writer or involved in editing or publishing, I'm liable to get a blank stare, so I find a different way of putting it (which is why I hate it when people accuse me of said-bookisms, but that's neither here nor there). If I were to tell you of my day getting C of O's from the B of B, you probably wouldn't know what I'm talking about even if you worked in my office. If I were to throw about high school debate terms, even ones you might think were pretty easy like "straw man," to people more used to having conversations than debates (or even "dialogues")... well, you see where this is going.
With some plain-speaking folks it goes beyond "fancy" words or jargon. Even employing more formal grammatical habits like "if I were" rather than "if I was" or not ending sentences with prepositions... well, some folks would understand you right enough, but you'd sound funny to 'em. You can lament the death of proper structure until the cows come home (did I mention I was a long-time subscriber to the Underground Grammarian?), but it's beside the point, which is that, if you really want to talk with people to find common ground, it's probably a good idea to have enough common courtesy and common sense to know how they talk, and make appropriate adjustments. And I think this is all Amanda was saying in her original don't-mess-with-Texas post anyway. As much as we may not cotton to it, W's lavish spread in Crawford is what's known as a ranch in those parts. Like South Fork was, y'know?
Now, as I see it, the danger here isn't that we edumacated sorts will have to dumb ourselves down in order to communicate with anti-elitists from any geographical locale, but that we'll sound dumb trying to do it. Amanda may very well be shaking her head at my use of phrases like "cotton to" above, although y'all can often get away with things in writing that y'all can't when speaking (I don't pronounce "y'all" nearly as well as I write it!). As a middle-aged white Jewish woman I jump immediately into self-parody any time I even attempt hip-hop phrases (true dat). But see, I don't think that's what plain-speech folks are expecting anyway.
Our language is blessed with a truly immense vocabulary. If you truly want to communicate, there's no need to use it to browbeat or intimidate others, or to score points, or to show off, or to "hear yourself talk" without regard to your readers or listeners. If you truly want to communicate, there's always a way to say something directly without putting on airs, without sounding like you're doing all sorts of verbal gymnastics to please some would-be opponent (again, that's the debate mentality at work, plain-speech folks aren't the enemies of edumacated sorts), and without compromising your love of language (in fact, if you love language, this shouldn't be difficult at all).
Sometimes, all it involves is being a good listener first, then responding in kind. And not being a boor and reacting like you're threatened, or like someone's trying to take away some implicit entitlement, if they suggest you vary the way you talk toward situation-specific conversations (which are, after all, not All About You).
Update: Carla weighs in as well, although I should point out that picking on the specific ten-dollar word "ruminations" was a goof on myself, which context was kinda left out of her excerpt. And I agree with her that we should never let the idea of being smart or educated be seen as a bad thing, the way the current administration is trying to do in so many ways. It's actual elitism that's bad, and the right is just as elitist, particularly Mr. Harvard C+ who needs to keep a "balanced life." There's a difference between being educated and worldly and flaunting same in conversation. Although I admit, my being married to a Brit has peppered my conversation with way too many "bloody"s and the neighborhood kids still look at me strangely when I flip them the two-fingered bird.
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