Sometimes people depress me, they really do.

[conuly]

I had gotten a book for the niecelings, a sweet story about a little girl who wants to be just like her sister. This is so true to their life right now, Evangeline copying Angelique, I knew I had to get it.

And out of two comments on Amazon, one is about "bad grammar".

This book was given to my son as a text book and I had to correct the grammar and incomplete sentences before I could let him read it. The title shoud be "Copy Kyla". The page that starts "Got me some..." should read "I have..." The pages are not numbered. Only two pages are free of grammatical errors. I gave one star for good illustrations and one star for the positive family life and small town atmosphere of the book.

*eyeroll*

Instead of noticing that the little girl talks like, well, a little girl (cheers for accuracy), we get "Gee, nothing matters but the form", missing the point entirely, of course.

I just don't get it, I really don't.

Comments

[cumaeansibyl.livejournal.com]

Am I reading too much into it, or is there a subtext of "I don't like how those people talk?"

It's one thing to be a prescriptivist when it comes to American Standard English and the settings in which it's properly used, and quite another to throw fits every time there's a deviation, regardless of context. I know I used to be a lot worse about it, but I still don't think I was ever enough of a snot to criticize children's books for use of dialect.

Now if there'd been an apostrophe plural in there, I'd be yelling my fool head off. :)

[conuly]

If it's not, then it's the oh-so-concerned "It portrays black people (or farmers, or immigrants, or whomever it happens to be) as not speaking right and therefore, as being stupid". Nevermind that yes, there are people who really do speak like this and that you're the one who just called them stupid.

Is "Got me purple boots like Kyla" how I speak? Or "I do like Kyla"? No. Far from it. But the kiddos hear worse than this (both in terms of prescriptivist grammar and in terms of things I actually would rather they weren't exposed to) every day on the bus. I'd rather teach them not to judge people so much on presentation, and a little more on message. (So long as the message isn't totally obscured, of course, but really.)

[kittikattie.livejournal.com]

Because as we all know, no one ever speaks in casual grammar except "those people." And they're just lazy.

Ugh.

[conuly]

To be fair, some people get like this when the characters in question are clearly race-less (like Elmo (omg he doesn't use pronouns aaaaahhh) or that character on the wonderpets who apparently doesn't say rs properly).

And some people... I don't know.

[leora.livejournal.com]

It's important to portray all characters as speaking properly so that children with speech difficulties will have no role models and will know that they are wrong and not like the rest of us and the other children will know it's okay to make them feel inferior.

[conuly]

Something like that. Because, you know, half an hour of TV will *totally* undermine a whole lifetime of living with ones parents (who, presumably, set a good example all the time).

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Yes, because it's OMG so much better for kids to speak however they damn well please and mock the kids who DO speak properly for not being like the rest.

...sorry, sore spot there. I was an only child who learned language from books, not from ungrammatical peers, and hoo boy, did I catch hell for it in elementary school. I'm still a prescriptivist because (all together now) I DID NOTHING WRONG. While I could probably have been more tactful when I corrected the spelling of my first-grade teacher....most six-year-olds aren't big on tact, whether they're telling you what they think of dinner or about the spot on your shirt.

[conuly]

You're reading things into it. I don't think anybody should mock anyone on how they speak, whether they "speak properly" or not. And if that's your only reason for prescriptivism, I have to say, it's kinda a bad one. I mean, it's not something I tend to agree with anyway, so I'm not the best judge here, but all the same.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Not my only reason, I wrote hastily. But it's still one of the reasons.

[conuly]

Well, we're all entitled to our views. So long as it's not the only reason :)

[conuly]

Well, I guess you might not be reading into it, but it seems unlikely that that's what leora meant.

[kittikattie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's stupid. Little kids don't speak in perfect grammar.

[conuly]

Nor should they. Little kids are an important part of language change, aren't they? (And in this case, just so you know, I totally agree that the complaint could be race-based. I just can't prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt, etc. etc. etc.)

[cumaeansibyl.livejournal.com]

Am I reading too much into it, or is there a subtext of "I don't like how those people talk?"

It's one thing to be a prescriptivist when it comes to American Standard English and the settings in which it's properly used, and quite another to throw fits every time there's a deviation, regardless of context. I know I used to be a lot worse about it, but I still don't think I was ever enough of a snot to criticize children's books for use of dialect.

Now if there'd been an apostrophe plural in there, I'd be yelling my fool head off. :)

[conuly]

If it's not, then it's the oh-so-concerned "It portrays black people (or farmers, or immigrants, or whomever it happens to be) as not speaking right and therefore, as being stupid". Nevermind that yes, there are people who really do speak like this and that you're the one who just called them stupid.

Is "Got me purple boots like Kyla" how I speak? Or "I do like Kyla"? No. Far from it. But the kiddos hear worse than this (both in terms of prescriptivist grammar and in terms of things I actually would rather they weren't exposed to) every day on the bus. I'd rather teach them not to judge people so much on presentation, and a little more on message. (So long as the message isn't totally obscured, of course, but really.)

[kittikattie.livejournal.com]

Because as we all know, no one ever speaks in casual grammar except "those people." And they're just lazy.

Ugh.

[conuly]

To be fair, some people get like this when the characters in question are clearly race-less (like Elmo (omg he doesn't use pronouns aaaaahhh) or that character on the wonderpets who apparently doesn't say rs properly).

And some people... I don't know.

[leora.livejournal.com]

It's important to portray all characters as speaking properly so that children with speech difficulties will have no role models and will know that they are wrong and not like the rest of us and the other children will know it's okay to make them feel inferior.

[conuly]

Something like that. Because, you know, half an hour of TV will *totally* undermine a whole lifetime of living with ones parents (who, presumably, set a good example all the time).

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Yes, because it's OMG so much better for kids to speak however they damn well please and mock the kids who DO speak properly for not being like the rest.

...sorry, sore spot there. I was an only child who learned language from books, not from ungrammatical peers, and hoo boy, did I catch hell for it in elementary school. I'm still a prescriptivist because (all together now) I DID NOTHING WRONG. While I could probably have been more tactful when I corrected the spelling of my first-grade teacher....most six-year-olds aren't big on tact, whether they're telling you what they think of dinner or about the spot on your shirt.

[conuly]

You're reading things into it. I don't think anybody should mock anyone on how they speak, whether they "speak properly" or not. And if that's your only reason for prescriptivism, I have to say, it's kinda a bad one. I mean, it's not something I tend to agree with anyway, so I'm not the best judge here, but all the same.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Not my only reason, I wrote hastily. But it's still one of the reasons.

[conuly]

Well, we're all entitled to our views. So long as it's not the only reason :)

[conuly]

Well, I guess you might not be reading into it, but it seems unlikely that that's what leora meant.

[kittikattie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's stupid. Little kids don't speak in perfect grammar.

[conuly]

Nor should they. Little kids are an important part of language change, aren't they? (And in this case, just so you know, I totally agree that the complaint could be race-based. I just can't prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt, etc. etc. etc.)