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Grammar Rant
Dec. 15th, 2003 03:56 pmSad as I am to see them go, "former" and "latter" have outlived their usefulness. Sample sentence for discussion purposes: "Topic A reminds me of topic B; however the former has quality X and the latter does not." Once upon a time, everyone agreed that "former" in the above sentence would refer to A, and "latter" to B. But somewhere along the way, people started reversing the meaning, so that "former" now means B, while "latter" means A. I can understand (I think) the cognitive/etymological reasons for doing so, BUT... Without consistent usage, the words become meaningless noise.
This morning I was reading an article that had a sentence of the form above, and realized that I had no idea what it meant. Moreover, I would only have been able to understand the author's intent if I already possessed most of the information that the sentence was (theoretically) meant to impart! Worse yet, in cases where, for instance, "quality X" is a matter of opinion, and under some debate, I may not be able to figure what the author's opnion is even if I know the A and B in question quite well!
If I were French, I would probably try and pass a law about this. Not being French, I will, grudgingly, accept that this is another tool that's been taken out of the box. Oh well, I suppose new tools are going in at at least a similar rate.
[Reminds me somewhat of the minor 40's superhero with the unfortunate-in-retrospect name of "The Gay Ghost". As far as I know he had only two appearances in the 1980's. One was a Secret Origins story that revamped him to "The Grim Ghost" (just wrong on almost every possible level). The other was in the extremely meta-fictional Animal Man storyline, where he was shown in Comic Book Limbo, and bemoaning the fact that he was probably trapped there forever.]
This being a grammar flame, I have almost certainly, by the Laws of the Net, committed grammar offences in it myself. I beg your fogiveness :-)
This morning I was reading an article that had a sentence of the form above, and realized that I had no idea what it meant. Moreover, I would only have been able to understand the author's intent if I already possessed most of the information that the sentence was (theoretically) meant to impart! Worse yet, in cases where, for instance, "quality X" is a matter of opinion, and under some debate, I may not be able to figure what the author's opnion is even if I know the A and B in question quite well!
If I were French, I would probably try and pass a law about this. Not being French, I will, grudgingly, accept that this is another tool that's been taken out of the box. Oh well, I suppose new tools are going in at at least a similar rate.
[Reminds me somewhat of the minor 40's superhero with the unfortunate-in-retrospect name of "The Gay Ghost". As far as I know he had only two appearances in the 1980's. One was a Secret Origins story that revamped him to "The Grim Ghost" (just wrong on almost every possible level). The other was in the extremely meta-fictional Animal Man storyline, where he was shown in Comic Book Limbo, and bemoaning the fact that he was probably trapped there forever.]
This being a grammar flame, I have almost certainly, by the Laws of the Net, committed grammar offences in it myself. I beg your fogiveness :-)
