A few words about my words.
In my writing, you will see a few things that are non-traditional in established language customs.
A - I use his/her, him/her, s/he etc... in stead (and sometimes I separate formerly contracted adverbs too) of 'their' which is plural and doesn't work for me when mentioning a single person.
B - I hyphenate (or not) to join words any way I damn well please. Get used to it (please).
C - I use human to refer to what is incorrectly, but arguably standardized 'man'. I just feel that human doesn't have any gender qualifications and so it works better for me.
D - I use 'USans' in stead of 'Americans', because I think it is right rude and arrogant to call people from the United States 'Americans' as if Canada, Mexico and all of South American did not exist. To me, whether you are Achagua, Ika, Mayan, Coconuco, Sioux, Inuit or Irish Catholic (in Boston), you are an American. The Irish Catholic and the Sioux though, are both USans to me.
E - elipsisitus - I have it bad sometimes, and since it is not a terminal disease (pun possibly intended), it does describe exactly what my mind is doing when I use an elipsis... continuing on in my head or in the space that follows, but not on the page.
F - pleonasms - I don't employ them at all. If you see me using ATM Machine or PMS Symdrom, you can berate me if you please. I thank (I think) a Romanian friend for this sensitivity.
G - oddities - I use many of them, odd contractions, odd endings, made up words like splendiferous and ginormous and interreaction, uncommon but perfect words like irreligious and intrepid and incipient. These less common words are slowly fading from the pantheon of the English language, and I am working to keep them alive. Please forgive me if I invent a word that says something well - you will know. I don't usually invent words like Google, that don't say anything by themselves, though I wish I had.
The point is that as soon as you or I put anyone or anything in a neat and tidy box, it'll subvert that splendid exercise and some paradox will trump the tidy attempt to pin this bouncing world of experience down. It ain't gonna happen - let the world change and flex and be what it is. It'll be a far better, more peaceful, more dynamic place to be. If you got the impression that I am a language snob, you're wrong - my choices with language are my own... the only way I am a snob is when people are lazy with language. It kind of defeats the purpose as the message conveyed is not all that clear.
Cheers!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
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