9:09 p.m. - July 27, 2002
On grammar, the lexicon, and barbarians at the gate
Grading papers tonight.
People, please. Remember the following:
1) There: a place or destination, as in Look over there!
2) Their: a possessive, meaning That's theirs!
3) They're: a contraction of They are, referring to people or things (plural), meaning They're fools.
Example: Their homes are over there, and they're all painted yellow.
All languages change over time, influenced by a variety of factors that converge longitudinally so that one looks back and can't understand anything said or written yesterday, a position I'm finding with these papers. It's a sorry state when the English language is being changed by illiterate fools whose parents can afford $40,000 on tuition but not care enough to ensure their child learns to speak, read, and write coherently. Never trust language into the hands of the masses; wait, isn't that how we got the Great Vowel Shift and today's language instead of Chaucer's? That's right, so I'll shut the fuck up--but I will deduct 10 points off the top for the inconvenience of reminding me who's the language boss.
