linguistic complaint

Expressions of concern regarding the perceived decline of a language.

Most exponents of what has been called this "age-old, worldwide habit of declinism" have little or no background in linguistics.

In The Standard of Usage in English (1908), Thomas Lounsbury, a professor of language and literature at Yale University, observed that there has existed "in every period of the past, as there is now, a distinct apprehension in the minds of very many worthy persons that the English tongue is always in the condition of approaching collapse, and that arduous efforts must be put forth, and put forth persistently, in order to save it from destruction."

See also:

• The Endless Decline of the English Language
• Correctness
• English Language
• Language Change
• Language Maven
• Prescriptive Grammar
• Purism
• Standard English
• Usage
• Verbal Hygiene
• What Is a SNOOT?

Etymology:

The term linguistic complaint was introduced in 1985 by James Milroy and Lesley Milroy in their book Authority in Language: Investigating Standard English (see below).

Examples and Observations:

• "The literature of linguistic complaint in/about English began in the late medieval period and continues to the present day. Its thesis is that language is in decline, and its recurring themes include dialect variation, bad grammar, ugly 'nasal' accents, 'sloppy' pronunciation, the misuse of words, and the inability of people today to spell or punctuate correctly."
  (Deborah Cameron, Good to Talk?: Living and Working in a Communication Culture. Sage, 2000)



• Characteristics of the Linguistic Complaint Tradition
  "[O]ne characteristic of the linguistic complaint tradition is the appeal to a past time in which the language is thought to have been used more correctly and effectively. A second characteristic is that someone or something has to be blamed for this alleged decline. A third characteristic is that linguistic decline is believed to be bound up with a general moral decline--a decline in general standards of behaviour. In an article in the Observer (7 February 1982), John Rae--then the Head Master of Westminster School--complains of linguistic decline amongst young people and blames the replacement of formal grammar teaching with creative writing teaching. Rae does not blame linguistics--and there is truth in the allegation that grammar teaching was in quite recent times rather neglected in favour of various more literary pursuits--but he goes further and claims that this decline is associated with decline in general standards of behavior.

  The overthrow of grammar coincided with the acceptance of the equivalent of creative writing in social behaviour. As nice points of grammar were mockingly dismissed as pedantic and irrelevant, so was punctiliousness in such matters as honesty, responsibility, gratitude, apology and so on.

  Society has changed: some people will believe it has changed for the worse, and others will think it has changed for the better, but there was never a time when everyone was punctiliously honest and responsible. Nor was there a time when all children knew their 'grammar.' Many . . . were illiterate, and for them traditional 'non-permissive' methods of education do not seem to have been very successful. . . .
  
  "There is a striking similarity between these complaints and those of [Jonathan] Swift in 1712."
  (James Milroy and Lesley Milroy, Authority in Language: Investigating Standard English, 3rd ed. Routledge, 1999)



• Jonathan Swift on the Decline of English
  "I do here in the Name of all the Learned and Polite Persons of the Nation, complain to your Lordship, as First Minister, that our Language is extremely imperfect; that its daily Improvements are by no means in proportion to its daily Corruptions; and the Pretenders to polish and refine it, have chiefly multiplied Abuses and Absurdities; and, that in many Instances, it offends against every Part of Grammar."
  (Jonathan Swift, "A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue," 1712)



• George Orwell on the Decline of English
  "Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. . . .
  
  "Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on indefinitely. A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts."
  (George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language." Horizon, April 1946)



• "[George] Orwell, pointed and brilliant thinker that he was, fell into the same trap as so many of his fellow language grouches. The first sentence of the essay begins 'Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way.' He was right that legions of people who think about English think it's 'in a bad way.' But he, the great facer of unpleasant facts, was fortunately not describing a fact but instead just indulging our friend the age-old, worldwide habit of declinism. Remember that Swift thought that English had reached near-terminal decline in 1712. The Fowler brothers complained of hazy imagery, foreignisms, and jargon in 1906's The King's English, published when Orwell was three. Henry Fowler repeated many of the same complaints in 1926's Dictionary of Modern English Usage, when Orwell was a young imperial policeman in Burma. Lynne Truss says the same today. The English of Orwell's 1946 was not 'in a bad way,' unless the English of 1712, 1906, 1926, all were too, and today's as well."
  (Robert Lane Greene, You Are What You Speak: Grammar Grouches, Language Laws, and the Politics of Identity. Random House, 2011)