Re: Pronunciate. *ZAP*

On Fri, 12 Mar 1999 10:11:32 -0500 Brian Betty <bbetty@...> writes:

>If I were the Lord, I would permit people to speak as they wish -
>except
>for the use of ironical and pronunciate. That'd get you a painful
>lightening [note: try "lightning"] bolt every time. Zap!
I hate to tell you this, Brian, but "ironical" is actually a viable
adjectival form, when being in used in the sense of "given to irony."
Look it up in Webster's.

And why does "pronunciate" bother you so much? I've personally never
heard it (though I have observed "conversate"), and though it's obviously
"incorrect," I don't see what the big deal is. Language is changing all
the time; who knows, maybe some day these will be in common use in
certain dialects--such shifts are nothing unusual.

I'll sign off with the comment that I've found, over time, that most of
the things prescriptivists get all hot and bothered over are really not
mistakes at all.

[Note: I apologize, Brian, if I've offended you. This isn't really
intended to be a personal attack--I just really can't stand it when
prescriptivists start pontificating, especially when they're incorrect.
Language has very little, if anything, to do with the "standards" set
down in style manuals and the like--it's a living system, and can only be
declared "wrong" in terms of a set of completely arbitrary rules. What's
the point?]

----------
Josh Brandt-Young <neonwave7@...>
http://geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/6073/
"After the tempest, I behold, once more, the weasel."
(Mispronunciation of Ancient Greek)

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