Between You and I the English Language is Going to the Dogs

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Channel: Intelligence Squared

Views: 286,344

Rating: 4.7660131 out of 5

Keywords: Intelligence Squared, Debate, great oratory, Intelligence Squared debate, speech, top debates, best debates, most interesting debates, educational debates, intelligence2, intelligencesquared, is debate, iq2, iq2 debate, iq squared, English language, English, American English, dialect, received pronunciation, OMG, selfie, grammar, twitter, facebook, Mary Beard, john Humphrys, Oliver Kamm, Simon Heffer, Erica Wagner, etabedegaugnal

Id: MMcSOCuszkw

Length: 101min 55sec (6115 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 14 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/FuturaStalkee]

Top comment:

What is absolutely true is that English words have lost their power. It forces writers to make power in their writing by stringing together a unique series of words. Unfortunately most people who communicate in English aren't lingual artists and now simply can't express power. This may lead to less appropriate forms of communication such as anger and profanity.

All the best words have been misused so much. The words in my everyday vocabulary are so incredibly dull. 

It doesn't seem viable to say English words have no power, then to write a paragraph in English intended to communicate with some degree of power.

[u/glasswings]

Description from the producers:

The English language is going to the dogs. “Between you and I” is just one of the howlers those of us with linguistic sensibilities have to endure. The distinctions between words such as ‘infer’ and ‘imply’, and ‘uninterested’ and ‘disinterested’ are disappearing. Americanisms such as ‘gotten’, ‘different than’ and ‘can I get..?’ abound. Every office resounds with horrible new jargon such as ‘going forward’, ‘deliverables’, ‘touch base’ and ‘heads up’. Infinitives are split, participles dangle. Language is based on established practice and rules. When the rules are continually (and that isn’t continuously) broken, the language suffers and those who care suffer too.

That’s the line taken by the so-called sticklers in this debate, but they are mistaken according to laissez faire linguists. English wasn’t set in stone by 19th-century grammarians – the kind who decreed it’s wrong to split an infinitive in English just because you can’t in Latin. Language changes but that doesn’t mean it’s in decline. Traditionalists may argue that digital technology has a pernicious effect on language, but in fact children who text a lot have higher rates of literacy. And it’s hard to deny that Facebook, Twitter and email have enriched the expressiveness of our language: ten years ago who could have written “OMG he’s RTd my selfie!!”

[u/DeletedLastAccount]

Apologies, IQ2 debate.