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It's Grammar Day! Is My Exclamation Point Wrong?

Chion Wolf
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WNPR
Peter Sokolowski is Editor-at-Large at Merriam-Webster.

Credit Crdotx / Creative Commons
/
Creative Commons

It's National Grammar Day, a time to take stock of the current status of the English language, and possibly get into bitter fights.

I'm old school. I'm the kind of person who will only use "not only" if I intend to follow it with "but also." That's probably a convention that died the quiet death of a feverish sloth many years ago. But I know what's right, and sometimes it feels like I'm helping to hold the language together even as it drifts into chaos.

That's entropy, and plenty of people would tell me that's the wrong analogy. The language isn't leaching out its energy. It's gaining strength, they'd say.

The digital revolution has put a lot more people back at the keyboard. People write more and speak less and in so doing they innovate in ways we can easily track and discuss. I don't believe all that. I'm just telling you it's another way of seeing it.

GUESTS:

Colin McEnroe is a radio host, newspaper columnist, magazine writer, author, playwright, lecturer, moderator, college instructor and occasional singer. Colin can be reached at colin@ctpublic.org.
Chion Wolf is the host of Audacious with Chion Wolf on Connecticut Public.
Betsy started as an intern at WNPR in 2011 after earning a Master's Degree in American and Museum Studies from Trinity College. She served as the Senior Producer for 'The Colin McEnroe Show' for several years before stepping down in 2021 and returning to her previous career as a registered nurse. She still produces shows with Colin and the team when her schedule allows.

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