I can see your reasoning too, and to an extent I agree with you. I certainly agree that people should be able to choose how they use language, and I hate to drop cool words because other people misunderstand or misinterpret them. And I think it's great for people to be educated wherever that's possible. On the other hand, though, I've come to see that expecting people to have or even to want that education can be a bit problematic because of the way that expectation intersects with a lot of the privileges I have.
I've known a lot of people who use language differently to me, and conversations about our different usage of particular words usually boils down to an assertion of privilege on one side or the other. As a fairly privileged person who's had a great education, the person asserting privilege in that discussion is usually going to be me. If I insist that my way is the right way because it aligns with the historical way, or the way in the dictionary, it can have classist or sometimes racist overtones. The people whose words are typically recorded throughout history, the people who write dictionaries, and the people who complain about other people using or interpreting language incorrectly, are usually the people with privilege. Having the access to education to know that your (general you, not you personally) way of speaking and interpreting language is the "right" way because it aligns with a history shaped by other privileged people is a privilege in itself. It'd be nice if everybody had that access to education, but if everybody had that education and adhered to the rules of how to use language according to all the centuries of privileged people who wrote the rulebook, many idioms would die out. A valuable part of many cultures would be erased. The way we communicate, how we navigate through this world, can also be very important in shaping the way we think about ourselves as individuals and understand our own identities, and telling people that their understanding of language, rooted in the idiom of a particular group, is wrong or inferior can be quite a personal attack. Telling people who misinterpret my words as meaning something offensive that isn't in the dictionary that they're wrong and I'm right and here's the academic proof, can have all kinds of layers of privilege and crap to it. That's not something I want in my interactions with others.
Meep, what a long comment this is!
Shorter version, in case of tl;dr: aside from generally not wanting to use words that I know will hurt people, issues about education and "correct" language use are often influenced by class and race in ways that can't easily be dismissed and that I'm not keen on perpetuating.
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dancing_serpent
(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-06 01:15 pm (UTC)I've known a lot of people who use language differently to me, and conversations about our different usage of particular words usually boils down to an assertion of privilege on one side or the other. As a fairly privileged person who's had a great education, the person asserting privilege in that discussion is usually going to be me. If I insist that my way is the right way because it aligns with the historical way, or the way in the dictionary, it can have classist or sometimes racist overtones. The people whose words are typically recorded throughout history, the people who write dictionaries, and the people who complain about other people using or interpreting language incorrectly, are usually the people with privilege. Having the access to education to know that your (general you, not you personally) way of speaking and interpreting language is the "right" way because it aligns with a history shaped by other privileged people is a privilege in itself. It'd be nice if everybody had that access to education, but if everybody had that education and adhered to the rules of how to use language according to all the centuries of privileged people who wrote the rulebook, many idioms would die out. A valuable part of many cultures would be erased. The way we communicate, how we navigate through this world, can also be very important in shaping the way we think about ourselves as individuals and understand our own identities, and telling people that their understanding of language, rooted in the idiom of a particular group, is wrong or inferior can be quite a personal attack. Telling people who misinterpret my words as meaning something offensive that isn't in the dictionary that they're wrong and I'm right and here's the academic proof, can have all kinds of layers of privilege and crap to it. That's not something I want in my interactions with others.
Meep, what a long comment this is!
Shorter version, in case of tl;dr: aside from generally not wanting to use words that I know will hurt people, issues about education and "correct" language use are often influenced by class and race in ways that can't easily be dismissed and that I'm not keen on perpetuating.