Assaults on the England language

Thu Jul 21 10:22:43 PDT 2005

"England" is a counterexample, but nouns are quite often used as adjectives. 
  One can properly say, "California legislators" rather than "Californian 
legislators," or "New York police" rather than "New Yorker police."  The 
phrase "Democrat Party" could be also read grammatically as "the party 
composed of Democrats," just as a "Parent and Teacher Association" would be 
an "association composed of parents and teachers."

More generally, this may be because I'm completely unfamiliar with the 
history of the term, but I'm intrigued that it is possible either to (1) 
intend offense or (2) take offense at the use of the word "Democrat."  What 
does "Democratic Party" actually *mean* that "Democrat Party" doesn't, or 
vice versa?  Is this all merely a case of blowing a trivial semantic issue 
into a huge fight over no particular reason other than mutual escalation?  
I.e., is it the case that people take offense at "Democrat Party" for 
absolutely no reason other than that offense is intended, and that 
correspondingly people use "Democrat Party" sheerly for the purpose of 
causing offense? Or to put it another way, would anyone bother to take 
offense at the term "Democrat" if no offense had ever been intended (or 
would anyone bother to use the term if they didn't know that offense would 
be taken)?

Best,
Stuart Buck

>From: Ann Althouse <althouse at wisc.edu>
>Reply-To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics 
><religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu>
>To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics <religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu>
>Subject: Re: Assaults on the England language
>Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 09:29:15 -0500
>
>I like the title of this thread "Assaults on the England language,"  which 
>suggests the grammatical argument for why it's wrong to say  Democrat 
>Party. But if the grammatical point is so strong, why do we  say "women 
>lawyers"? "Women" isn't an adjective.
>
>Ann
>
>On Jul 21, 2005, at 9:20 AM, Mark Graber wrote:
>
>>I suppose the best solution is that we all use the words we believe  best
>>convey our meanings, keeping in mind the virtues of civility on this
>>list.  Others may challenge our usages, and we then deciding  whether to
>>accept amendments.
>>
>>MAG
>>
>>
>>>>>nebraskalawprof at yahoo.com 07/21/05 10:03 AM >>>
>>>>>
>>I think, as the Court likes to say in EC cases, that purpose matters
>>when someone uses Xmas or Xtian instead of Christmas or Christian. Did
>>you use the abbreviation merely as a shortcut (if so, did you  abbreviate
>>lots of other words in your sentence or paragraph), or did you use  the X
>>because you think the name of Christ is offensive to non-Xtians? Do  you
>>often use Greek letters to shorten English words? Or is this the only
>>one you use?
>>
>>Frankly, my dears, I don't give a darn about words like Democrat Party
>>or Xmas.
>>
>>But I am offended when the word "Fundamentalist" is used in an  effort to
>>marginalize a Baptist or a Methodist or an evangelical. And that word
>>gets used on this list all the time to describe people, like Jim,  who
>>don't self-identify as  "Fundamentalists." Another word that gets  tossed
>>around in circles like this is "homophobe" to describe reasonable  folks
>>who merely believe in traditional sexual morality. And, of course,  since
>>we now have a Supreme Court vacancy, we will see the words "extremist"
>>and "outside the mainstream" used to describe reasonable conservatives
>>like Roberts and Scalia.
>>
>>Cheers, Rick Duncan
>>
>>
>>
>>Eric Treene <etreene at comcast.net> wrote:
>>I recall being taught in Sunday school that early Christians sometimes
>>used
>>an X to signify Christ, in order to avoid persecution. That, I was  told,
>>is
>>why X-mas is perfectly acceptable. Xtians would seem to be  acceptable as
>>well.
>>
>>Indeed, the term Christian originated as a put-down applied to the
>>followers
>>of Christ (like the term "Christer" used by Madelyn Murry O'Hair and
>>sometimes used by others to denigrate Christians today in some
>>quarters).
>>Christians eventually took on the label. Who knows, perhaps Christer
>>will
>>come into vogue among Christians. Language is funny that way. 50 years
>>from now Democrats may prefer "Democrat party."
>>
>>Eric Treene
>>(in my personal capacity).
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
>>[mailto:religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu]On Behalf Of Will Linden
>>Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 4:32 PM
>>To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics
>>Subject: Assaults on the England language
>>
>>
>>At 09:19 AM 7/20/05 -0500, you wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I never associated Democrat Party with McCarthy, although I'm not all
>>>
>>that
>>
>>>surprised to learn that he originated it. I always associated it with
>>>middle school. It is intended to be somehow insulting without really
>>>having any discernable meaning and without being very clever
>>>
>>
>>Like "Xtians"?
>>
>>
>>--
>>No virus found in this outgoing message.
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>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
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>>
>>Rick Duncan
>>Welpton Professor of Law
>>University of Nebraska College of Law
>>Lincoln, NE 68583-0902
>>
>>"When the Round Table is broken every man must follow either  Galahad or
>>Mordred: middle things are gone." C.S.Lewis, Grand Miracle
>>
>>"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or
>>numbered."  --The Prisoner
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>>
>
>_______________________________________________
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