Comment on As an English language pedant, I find this text message mildly infuriating.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 week agoIn a professional setting, language should not be an art, it should be something to facilitate communication.
We are not talking about poetry or fiction or anything else here and I think that should be obvious. Do you really think someone living in an English-speaking country for the first time and only are semi-fluent should be getting poems from their doctor or their boss and should be expected to figure out what they mean? I hope not.
Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Sorry, it seems like I failed to acknowledge your point adequately. I cede fully the point about professionalism in this context, and agree that it isn’t up to snuff. I only hoped to stand up for the larger value of creativity and expressiveness of language in other contexts. I’m a fan of English, as I think you are too; to have a language as complex as ours is a high price, and I think it would be a shame not to enjoy the benefits. I know of no language more capable of shadings of connotation, and freedom of form, nor any so idiomatically rich.
Personally, I make a point to enjoy my language, and I don’t mind any newcomers getting things wrong here and there, as long as they manage to bring their own idiosyncratic creativity to it. Language is such a powerful tool that I feel the word itself has too mundane a connotation. I am obliged to write very boring emails for my work, and it is so stifling that I tend to spread my wings more in other contexts. If I seem defensive, it is because I do get complaints. I respectfully stand by it though, people should speak artfully more often - if artlessness in professional contexts is as much of a stylistic commandment as it seems to be, anyway.