THAT VS. WHO: The Politics of Linguistics

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carol-maric/that-vs-who-brthe-politic_b_100292.html

This piece might be restored. Please feel free to read all the reviews below. Thank You All !

Reviews

Speaking of politics, you're careful not to offend those for whom "that" has replaced "who". Next time you should write a piece on "who" vs. "whom", or maybe "so-and-so and I" vs. "so-and-so and me" -- both huge pet peeves of mine.

Hmm, I'm afraid the above appears somewhat sarcastic... Well, it's not. I enjoyed your story immensely.

[Will Welch]

This is FRICKING interesting. So many ideas wrapped up in this prose. I do think the demonstration at the end that "Who always wants to win" can stand alone from the rest of the work though--it doesn't seem to be related...except the words reflect the political charge of the rest of the piece, but the idea is its independent... I do remember learning the difference between who and that and I think I stopped making the distictinon because others around me stopped--I followed like a sheep. DAMN!! I didn't even know. I must say that strict ENFORCEMENT of language conventions is FASCIST in itself and we should RESIST that kind of nitpicky MANIPULATION of our minds, even when beautiful beings with the best of intentions promote it.

[Tigerlobo]

YUM! You are a writer who knows who she is, rather than who that was...oh, I'm gonna be [feeling self-conscious for 'gonna'] reading this one again! I love this kind of talk...hm, write...uh, word----NAH: diction. If Diction were a WHO, then you would be she, and we--all the writers--would all be better than we may already be. Wow. You make me want to write better. 'Suss' is new for me. To suss. I'm heading to dictionary.com for that.

[Dave "Doc" Rogers]

The rules of written and spoken language. If there are no standard bearers, then we will digress to grunts and pointing.

Woefully, there is not a clear, staedy requirement to enforce proper language usage. American english being one of the worst offenders of being polyglot. Regional dialecta are accepted as norm to the point that effective communication with one part of the English speaking world is severely hampered. A pet peave of mine.

I recall the uproar created in some over France's fight for the purity of the French language. Some said silly. If we do not insist on at least an effective use of language then we who (not that) use language will cease to communicate.

I like your overall point made. I'm not much on political flaring, so that part I somewhat glossed over. Sorry.

Doc.

[Llysofar]

Hi Carol,
For me, when `that' is used instead of `who', the overriding feeling is of getting to causes, and that the personality of `who' is somehow not part of a material universe. However, I believe that we are in a quantum universe, rather than one dictated by a hierarchy of causes, and so I look at journalism as a straight-jacket that people put on to `make sense' of events, which cannot make sense without feelings or context.So, I go back to music, because the words alone are not enough, and never will be. But two I like are Hawaiian -ALoha, Mahalo,e {{{}}}

[Anna Peckinpah]

very well done; there is an underlying theme it seems revolving around how our ethnocentric viewpoints can be reflected even in how we talk in our everyday language; the fine line of equality can be easily broken when we decide to establish barriers based on such insignificant things such as skin, gender, religion, etc., it is so easy for us to walk down the path of destruction, demoraliztion, and tragedy. But it's people like you who decide to do something about these issues that keep humanity from self-destructing. thank you!!! :)

[dead]

Great essay which strongly shows the plasticity and adaptability of language in the socio-political context. The old paradigm is of course that of ‘us’ and ‘them’ which now, as you rightfully describe has been changed into ‘who’ and ‘that’; nonetheless however I think it is a paradigmatic shift of interpretation, because underneath lays the same driving force, being the dynamics between ‘self’ and ‘other’ and I think that indeed globalization can be seen as the source of such a shift in language and perspective. The biggest transformation which fuels this shift, is that from ‘us’ into ‘who’. Who are we? We are ‘who’ are different than ‘that’. But this ‘we’ is the absorption and fusion of the old revolutionary mass with the bourgeois. What was the cold war if not a restructuring of old social dynamics and ideologies? Communism was a godsend gift for the capitalist because it offered a means of restraining the proletariat, into finding a union with it, a unity against ‘that’ disgusting otherness which threatens out ‘freedom’. Now more than ever we live in a society of Nietzschean slave-morality!

Steven

[Crap!]

I am busy counting the grains of sand on Paradise beach and after that I am sketching out some new constellation forms for the stars that I want God to take a look at. My triverse of thought is expanding
as the universe of science shrinks in entropy.
I am trying to contain the backlash of humanity.
But I promise I will get back to you on this.

[the cunning linguist]

yea.
what she said.

[Steven Wyss]

Wow, The arrow strikes true to my own weakness. Even after college and going back to take creative writing, advanced fiction writing, and fiction writing for publication, I am still guilty of this little sin. I guess because I always used that for who when I spoke growing up and old habits die hard. I always have to correct this little mistake in almost every rewrite that I have ever done. Odd, that I don't make this mistake while tech writing or writing an essay, just during creative writing. perhaps thisa is because I try to write as I would speak. Take care and God bless...

Steve

[Roy Jacobs]

Great piece really, made me think. You are right, freedom is in the hearts and minds. I knew all the stuff about Bush but I also know the Clintons are in cohoots with the Bushes and that they run drugs into this country with the help of the Rockefellers and the Bilderbergers. Excellent piece everybody should read this.