a grammar tangent (was Re: HTML, etc,)

[P.Hovenkamp]

At 06:17 AM 25-03-99 -0600, you wrote:
>At 07:13 PM 03-24-99 -0800, you wrote:
>
> Can anyone tell me *why* this particular class of
>>mistake has become so popular only in the last decade? Another thing to
>>blame on spell-checker software (like using "their" for "they're")?
>
>In the 1960's and 1970's, many many US school districts began to
>de-emphasize the rules and mechanics of composition.  It was believed that
>rigid over-emphasis on punctuation, spelling, syntax, grammar, etc. was
>stifling children's creativity.  Instead of letting their imaginations soar,
>they were struggling under the burden of "i before e except after c" and
>other schoolmarmish doctrines.    A hallmark of the '60's attitude was that
>appearances didn't matter, only substance counted.   The idea was to let
>their creative little thoughts flow and blossom, and worry about prettying
>it up later. Only problem was, "later" never came.  Typical of many
>movements at the time, this new approach threw out the baby  with the bath.
>As a result, you have an entire generation of otherwise intelligent people
>who appear to be sloppy and careless when they write.  And, it goes without
>saying, I haven't noticed any overwhelming flood of creativity as a result
>of this de-emphasis on rules.
>
>Perhaps there *is* a lesson in all this for taxonomists. as re:
>nomenclature, Codes, etc.?

I'm afraid that things are much simpler than that, and the lesson is quite
a different one.
I've noticed that my spell checker (I use MSWord 97) has begun to suggest a
apostrophized s for ordinary plural words. I only recently started to use
it, occasionally (not likely to be more often in the foreseeable future),
so I can't tell whether the same error is already present in earlier versions.
Lesson? Blame it on Bill...

P. Hovenkamp
Rijksherbarium, Leiden
The Netherlands
hovenkamp at rhbcml.leidenuniv.nl
http://rulrhb.leidenuniv.nl/