I stayed in touch with her after school as she was one of the finest teachers I had. She made a fascinating point that has stuck with me.
The conversation started simply enough. I asked about the expression, "It begs the question..." I was confused because we had been taught that it meant circular reasoning in that it proposed an argument that assumed its own conclusion, that is, the idea being put forth would lead to its result. My confusion was based on some common uses that implied, "it raises the question..." which does not have a conclusion.
After a long pause, she began one of her long, deep, historical lectures that I admired her for.
I could never cover all of her points, but the gist of her discussion was that languages, particularly English, are constantly evolving with new words and phrases being developed as cultures, technologies and politics changed over time. She also pointed out that the increasing global economy meant that different peoples speaking different languages were interacting and needed commonality instead of grammatical perfection. Additionally, the diminishment of the Classical liberal education would result in a lower level of expression.
She was a classicist who had written her Master's thesis about "The Canterbury Tales" in the original Olde English. With the tiniest hint of disdain, she also pointed out that American culture seamed to becoming influenced more and more by "vulgar" language which, to her mind, would lower the level of public and private discourse. Nail meet head.
She was a great teacher and a few years ago I attended her funeral where I met some great folks from her years as an educator.
In the era of The Vulgarian, the internet and texting it's not surprising to see the language shifting beneath our feet. I speak French and I'm learning Spanish in Panama and I suspect those languages, along with others, are evolving similarly.
My dear malaise, we shall stand together upon the ramparts defending The Queen's English against the heathens!
P.S. Another point she forcefully argued was that words have meanings. That's why a proper dictionary has 100,000 words. As she would say, people with small vocabularies have feeble minds.
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