|
 |
ELP is offensive to English people | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5131 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes  Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 41 of 46 02 December 2010 at 5:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
The vast majority are not. Don't confuse official language with native. R. == 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 42 of 46 02 December 2010 at 6:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
"My dictionary says so". Well woop-de-doo. A) Dictionaries aren't always right, and older dictionaries are particularly bad for ignoring pejorative connotations. Mostly because these pejorative terms reflected a cultural prejudice anyhow, and if you're prejudiced, you normally don't know it -- you believe your viewpoint to be neutral. B) Language changes. For a start, there's no such thing as "behindhand" in modern colloquial English. C) Behindhand is itself rife with negative connotations, anyway. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5522 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 43 of 46 02 December 2010 at 6:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
It's better than "Because I say so", at least. Who else backs up your absurd claim that backward is not an adjective? Or that it necessarily implies regression from an earlier, higher state? (Or that people in "backward areas" are given to perversions and cannibalism!) Be serious, you know full well that this is just not the case, just as you can say "a very forward person" for someone that is proactive and open, you can use backward to mean "underdeveloped" (rather than "regressed"). This is not very important, but it's alarming that you build up an argument around something you know to be false. Yes, "backward" has negative connotations, so does "underdeveloped", "uncultured", "uneducated", "unsophisticated" and "underclass". But any word you invent to refer to phenomena that people in general find negative, such as low intelligence or lack of education, will eventually become "pejorative". This is unavoidable, so why not stop this endless running away from reality and call things what they are? People in tiny villages in the Welsh countryside will probably always be less sophisticated, less educated, poorer and yes! less intelligent (if only because the most intelligent move out) than people in Mayfair. It doesn't mean that they are any less human or worthy of respect, and it may be regrettable, but no verbal gymnastics can change the fact that there are marked differences between regions within and between countries, so let's not deceive ourselves by constantly inventing new euphemisms. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 44 of 46 02 December 2010 at 8:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
What's more alarming is that you appear to believe yourself to be psychic. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5522 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 45 of 46 02 December 2010 at 11:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
Since you are a native speaker of English, you're above average in intelligence and linguistic sense, and you have access to google, it's entirely inconceivable that you ACTUALLY believe that "backward" can not be used as an adjective. Prove me wrong! Do you really believe it? Not that it changes our respective arguments, but still. My wife does the same thing, she can believe in impossible things to further her arguments. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 46 of 46 03 December 2010 at 12:36am | IP Logged | |||||
|
This thread stopped here
5 persons have voted this message useful |
Sorry, you can NOT post a reply.
This topic is closed.
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
