<html>
<head>
<style><!--
.hmmessage P
{
margin:0px;
padding:0px
}
body.hmmessage
{
font-size: 10pt;
font-family:Tahoma
}
--></style></head>
<body class='hmmessage'><div dir='ltr'>
<pre>Dear List:<br> <br>Dmitri began his post,<br>> As we transition into a new semester...<br> <br>Permit, please, a heart-felt plea that people _NOT_ use<br>such management-speak mangling of language. Very arguably<br>a big contributing factor to the economic collapse is that<br>the jargon developed by financial "experts" and the way<br>they and management misuse language means that it becomes<br>impossible to figure out what is being discussed.<br> <br>One recent installment of the web-comic xkcd.com illustrates<br>a simple example of the obfuscation possible with such<br>linguistic monstrosities:<br> <br><a href="http://www.xkcd.com/1060/" target="_blank">http://www.xkcd.com/1060/</a><br> <br>An even worse example was told to me by an editor friend,<br>wherein a senior something argued on the email discussion<br>list for editors in Ontario that it was perfectly acceptable<br>to use "relationship" as a verb, i.e., "to relationship with<br>someone." (Or the following personal anecdote from 20+ years<br>ago, where a client for whom I did some contract computing<br>work insisted on saying, "When we make that determinization"<br>and the like, apparently incapable of understanding that the<br>suffix "-tion" indicates "noun-form-of"--I never heard him<br>say what would have been the base word "determinize," by<br>the way... [And no, I did not correct him, since I was broke<br>at the time and needed the money very badly.])<br><br>"Transition" is a NOUN, ladies and gentlemen. My heart sank<br>to see Dmitri, who has argued so forcefully and clearly in<br>many past posts to this forum, write the above instead of<br>such simple, straightforward, and correct phrases as:<br> "As we move into a new semester..."<br> "As we start a ..."<br> "As we prepare for a..."<br> "As we begin a..."<br> etc.<br>(Or, if one _really_ cannot contain the impulse for florid<br>language, at least try for some poetic gusto, e.g.,<br> As th'rising Square of Pegasus portends<br> returning students to our ivied realms..." :)<br> [One of course need not limit oneself to blank iambic<br> pentameter: _terza rima_ for Dante fans, or the leonine<br> hexameters of the Anonymous of St. Emmeram for those<br> wanting to reconnect to the history of our subject, are<br> but two possibilities...])<br><br>As scholars, we should always strive to be as clear and<br>direct as possible--especially since our field already<br>requires some fairly technical jargon--in order to combat<br>the stuff (I would much prefer a stronger word) that Alan<br>Sokal pilloried so masterfully 15-odd years ago. As Calvin<br>(of _Calvin and Hobbes_) said, "Verbing weirds language.":)<br> <br>Grammatically and Sincerely,<br> <br>Art Samplaski<br>Ithaca, NY<br></pre> </div></body>
</html>