Looks like language analysts, linguisticians, langlogists, language engineers, and language scientists aren't the only ones worried about the names for their profession. Jan Freeman's The Word today starts with a journalist declaring a preference for the term opinionator (that earns a chuckle, I hope) and declaring journalist 'pompous'. (The image here may support that view, but I'm not quite sure how.)Just fyi: After that little set-up, the bulk of Freeman's column focuses on the subject of people declaring certain utterly normal pronunciations pompous, ugly or 'straight out of lower Slobbovia'.
3 comments:
I indeed had a chuckle at this, as I read the link before continuing to read your post. Opinionator is quite laughable if meant in earnest, which I suspect is the case here.
When completely irreputable 'journalists'¹ such as Bill O'Riley - or any such serf of Emperor Murdoch for that matter - start saying in all honesty, that they are balanced ('No spin zone'? Honestly, man.), then why should there be any connection between the meaning of a word and its use as a label?
So, she may as well call herself an opinionator, since, in reality, labels have become hollow.
¹Perhaps 'Opinionator would be better in this instance.
Gee, when you mention Murdoch, it suddenly seems like we don't have a problem at all, even fodder for kidding around — we're NEVER compared to anybody as bad as Fox News!
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