{"id":620,"date":"2008-06-27T12:32:28","date_gmt":"2008-06-27T17:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/faithpromotingrumor.wordpress.com\/?p=620"},"modified":"2008-06-27T12:32:28","modified_gmt":"2008-06-27T17:32:28","slug":"process-ease-and-other-linguistic-pet-peeves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithpromotingrumor\/2008\/06\/process-ease-and-other-linguistic-pet-peeves\/","title":{"rendered":"Process-ease and other Linguistic Pet Peeves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019m not a prescriptivist when it comes to language. That is, when a foreign-speaking missionary comes home from a mission correcting everyone\u2019s grammar, people are correct (imo) to be turned off by it (this usually assumes, as prescriptivists have throughout time, that English should work like Latin, Greek, or some other language). This \u201ccorrect\u201d English itself would have been considered a bastardization not too terribly long ago. Split infinitives don\u2019t bother me (though I try to really not use them), and I\u2019m even okay with everyone bringing their<\/em> books. You\u2019ll hear me gleeflully postpositioning prepositions, at least when appropriate to the audience I\u2019m speaking to, and I\u2019ve certainly transitioned to verbing nouns.<\/p>\n

But there are some things that I\u2019d like to correct, for reasons other than to preserve grammar.*<\/p>\n

Public enemy #1: \u201cProcesseez\u201d: You\u2019ll often hear professors, pundits, and politicians of varying stripes use the \u201ceez\u201d suffix to make a plural out of the word \u201cprocess\u201d. This has always struck me as silly. Why should this word have a special distinction when we don\u2019t say \u201cbuseez\u201d to indicate multiple pullmans?<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s for the simple fact that it is an attempt to demonstrate an elite linguistic register. If you know how to make \u201cthesis\u201d plural, for example (thesises is also fine), and say \u201ctheses\u201d, it ostensibly indicates a familiarity with Latinate endings and it sounds much more educated to say something in Latin, sine qua non? But the \u201ccorrect\u201d way to indicate more than one process was with a simple schwa plus \u201cs\u201d, just like any other noun ending in a sibilant. On the analogy, therefore, of \u201cthesis-theses::process-x\u201d, process-ease was born. The same goes for \u201cbias\u201d etc. So if you really<\/em> want to sound intelligent, say processuz.<\/p>\n

#2: Begging the question: One of the most common historically \u201cincorrect\u201d phrases that I come across on the blogs is when someone uses the phrase \u201cto beg a question\u201d etc. to mean \u201cto raise a question\u201d, or \u201cto elicit a new avenue of inquiry\u201d. Here\u2019s what the OED says about the phrase:<\/p>\n

<\/a>6.<\/strong> To take for granted without warrant; esp.<\/em> in <\/a>to beg the question<\/em><\/strong>: to take for granted the matter in dispute, to assume without proof. <\/a><\/p>\n

1581<\/strong> W. CLARKE<\/span><\/a> in Confer.<\/em> IV. (1584) Ffiij, I say this is still to begge the question. <\/a>1687<\/strong> SETTLE<\/span><\/a> Refl. Dryden<\/em> 13 Here hee\u2019s at his old way of Begging the meaning. <\/a>1680<\/strong> BURNET<\/span><\/a> Rochester<\/em> (1692) 82 This was to assert or beg the thing in Question. <\/a>1788<\/strong> REID<\/span><\/a> Aristotle\u2019s Log.<\/em> v. \u00a73. 118 Begging the question is when the thing to be proved is assumed in the premises. <\/a>1852<\/strong> ROGERS<\/span><\/a> Ecl. Faith<\/em> 251 Many say it is begging the point in dispute. <\/a>1870<\/strong> BOWEN<\/span><\/a> Logic<\/em> ix. 294 The vulgar equivalent for petitio principii<\/em> is begging the question.<\/div>\n

It strikes me, then, that these, \u201coriginal\u201d uses of the phrase are more like the opposite of what they\u2019re currently used to mean.<\/p>\n

These two examples (and I could produce more) bother me for the same reasons that people correcting others\u2019 grammar bothers me: it\u2019s arrogant (ironic, I know, in a post telling people to speak differently). It\u2019s an attempt to sound educated when the usage is based on \u201cuneducated\u201d foundations. Call me a hypocrite, but maybe that\u2019s what pet peeves are, by nature.<\/p>\n

What bothers you about current usage?<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n

*I have the sense that I\u2019m not the first to discuss this sort of thing in the \u2018nacle, but I\u2019m not sure where I\u2019ve heard it discussed. Please link if you know of other discussions.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not a prescriptivist when it comes to language. That is, when a foreign-speaking missionary comes home from a mission correcting everyone\u2019s grammar, people are correct (imo) to be turned off by it (this usually assumes, as prescriptivists have throughout time, that English should work like Latin, Greek, or some other language). This \u201ccorrect\u201d English […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":453,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marginalia","category-personal-issues"],"yoast_head":"\nProcess-ease and other Linguistic Pet Peeves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I'm not a prescriptivist when it comes to language. 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