Pronouns are fascinating- starting with the Quakers & their thee/thou kinds of things- one can only assume that these changes are brought about by social needs and not just random chance. Why else would a community go to so much trouble to change something so basic? I want to do more research on this.
Another language change that someone should comment on is the addition of ms....an interesting language development partly because it's an abbreviation that doesn't abbreviate anything...taking over semantic space for good reasons- but adding the innovation that one can make an abbreviation, complete with period and all, and not really have it mean that you shortened anything at all. Kind of like the US Postal Service deciding to change state abbreviations to all caps, two letters only...didn't they realize that this was the death-knell for normal (and colorful) abbreviations like Ill., Calif., or O.? I'm also interested in chat and text-messaging, and the changes they bring (lol)- so this whimsical musing about abbreviation and language change could be like complaining about a raindrop when a tsunami's on the horizon.
But, speaking of weblogs, got into TESOL again, twice over, one discussion about plagiarism, and one bigger, a demonstration, on weblogs. There could be more, but I certainly won't ask for it, since I need time to organize & pull together my project (see below). And it's a busy time- can't even organize the present weblogs, or make CESL Today, lacking the 3-4 hours of attention to detail that it requires. Ah, life.
Happy Hallowe'en, and a merry All Saints Day, Guy Fawkes Day, Sadie Hawkins Day, and Election Day- enjoy your holiday season!
posted by tom @ 10:58 PM
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