Category: Language Matters
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Unbegriff
This passage from Schopenhauer illustrates one of my favorite German words, Unbegriff, for which we have no simple equivalent in standard English. "An impersonal God is no God at all, but only a word misused, an unconcept, a contradictio in adjecto, a philosophy professor's shibboleth, a word with which he tries to weasel his way…
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Language Rant: When to Capitalize the Initial Letter in ‘Earth’
I found the following sentence in David Benatar's The Human Predicament, p. 36: Nothing we do on earth has any effect beyond it. (36) This sentence slipped past the Oxford editors. The initial letter of 'earth' ought to be capitalized since the word is being used as the proper name of a planet. A while…
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Is Every Racist a White Supremacist?
'White supremacist' is becoming the Left's smear word of choice eclipsing even 'racist.' This leads to an interesting question: Is every racist a white supremacist? That depends on what you think a racist is. On one definition, a member of a race is a racist if he harbors an irrational hatred of the members of…
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Be Careful with ‘Over-represent’ and ‘Under-represent’
If you fancy yourself clear-thinking, then you ought to be very careful with the word 'over-represent' and its opposite. These words are ambiguous as between normative and non-normative readings. It is just a fact that there are proportionately more Asians than blacks in the elite high schools of New York City. But it doesn't follow…
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Don’t Surrender to the Left on Language
The Left's destructiveness extends even unto language. Shoot back against the linguistic hijackers. Here's some ammo from Peter Kreeft's Socratic Logic, 3rd ed., p. 36, n. 1: The use of the traditional inclusive generic pronoun "he" is a decision of language, not of gender justice. There are only six alternatives. (1) We could use the grammatically…
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Find the Linguistic Howler
For all his insights about the pathologies of the modern left, Mark Lilla has not divested himself of the most ubiquitous intellectual quirk of today’s establishment liberal: He equivocates the common good with the electoral success of the Democratic Party. Lilla is not trying to convince leftists that they stand to learn anything from voters…
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Kimball on Stove on Race
Roger Kimball, Who Was David Stove? Excerpt: Stove’s essay “Racial and Other Antagonisms” is similarly emollient. He begins by noting that some degree of friction is the common if not the inevitable result when “two races of people have been in contact for long.” Only in the twentieth century, however, has such antagonism been described…
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Lukáš Novák on Use and Mention
From a comment in a now fast-receding earlier thread: An editor trying to impose a clear use-mention distinction on authors soon realises that most certainly words can be both used and mentioned, and that it is not inherently wrong. BTW, the Scholastics believed that in the case of the so-called material supposition it is regularly…
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You are not a Racist if You Speak the Truth about Race
My title answers the question I posed in my post Are the Police Racist? I asked: If a statement about race is true, is one a racist for making it? Is one a racist for reporting the following? Homicide numbers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Supplementary Homicide Reports, 1976–2005 indicate that young African-American males account for…
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Is Trump Divisive?
To say of Trump or anyone that he is divisive is to say that he promotes (political) division. But there is no need to promote it these days since we already have plenty of it. We are a deeply and perhaps irreparably divided nation. So it is not right to say that Trump is divisive:…
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Define or Drop
For leftists, words are weapons. If you are a lefty, and you disagree, then I invite you to define 'fascist,' 'racist,' 'white supremacist,' and the rest of the epithets in your arsenal. Define 'em or drop 'em. Show us that you are people of good will. Suppose I point out the incompatibility of Sharia with…
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Frequently Misused Expressions
This is an updated version of a language rant first published in October 2013. …………… You've heard of the Soup Nazi. I'm the Language Nazi. And that's my cat, Heinrich. 1. Toe the line, not: tow the line. 2. Tough row to hoe, not: tough road to hoe. 3. Rack one's brains, not: wrack one's brains. 4. Wrack and ruin, not: rack and…
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Harry Binswanger on Why Language Matters
I am not a Libertarian or an Objectivist. But I do agree with much of what Harry Binswanger says here. (HT: C. Cathcart) I've been harping on similar themes for years. I'll pull some quotations. . . . since words *are* the tools of language, they are the tools of thought. That means you must resist…
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Concision at War with Redundancy
One of my faults as a writer is that I am prolix. I almost wrote ‘excessively prolix,’ which would have illustrated the fault in question. Piling ‘excessively’ onto ‘prolix’ would not only have been unnecessary, but would also have suggested that one can be prolix in moderation. But wordiness is a vice, and vices should…
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Redundancy of the Day: ‘Future Prognosis’
According to a news report, doctors will not speculate on the 'future prognosis' of Otto Warmbier. As opposed to what? His present prognosis?