Oh My...

Response to Lakoff
One of the many sections in Language War that I really liked was on “The Stories That Make The News.” I was able to understand how we, as people, put entertainment before importance and urgency. We would rather hear about Anna Nicole and her baby drama, then to hear about our soldiers who are over there dying for this country. Yes it is true that many people don’t agree with the war and yes the war has been going on for a long time now. However, the bottom line is that anytime people are dying daily and anytime there is a severe debate like the war or anything else on that level that should be number one. But instead of that being number one we are watching Judge Judy and then at the bottom of the screen there is a line talking about the war or decisions made by Congress.
Another section I liked was “Apologies As Language Politics.” According to Lakoff, “In making an apology, the maker (1) acknowledges wrongdoing; (2) acknowledges that the addressee is the wronged party; (3) admits needing something (forgiveness) from the addressee to make things right again.” If one were to go by this definition of an apology it would be safe to say that it is very rare for people to apologize and actually mean it. An apology today is some one saying, “I’m sorry” or “I apologize”. There is no meaning in this! Why is the person apologizing? In my opinion, apologies today have become routine and therefore no longer mean anything. It’s just become a standard way especially for women. A lot of the time women apologize for things that don’t even really need an apology but it’s a learned behavior.
Next we have “Linguistic Prescriptivism”. This section was all about language and I definitely agree that language is constantly changing. I also believe that it is a good thing. In class we talked about ebonics being accepted in schools. I have to say that I think that’s okay to a certain extent. I am okay with ebonics being used in elementary school. At that point I feel that trying to hear the students is more important than how they are saying whatever it is that they are saying. I do believe that ebonics should not be accepted in high school or college at all. I feel that at this point people should be speaking proper English.
These are just my opinions about Lakoff and the text and how I took them.