![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Writer's Block: Pet central
May. 3rd, 2010 11:51 pm[Error: unknown template qotd]
It's kind of interesting how people are taking this question: some are answering it, straight up, and adding justification either for or against; others are squabbling over semantics (or telling everyone it's about semantics), or bashing the question (I paraphrase: "This is such a tiny issue; if we're caring about this, what about all those human injustices?") and the random spam, of course.
What's neat, though, is to see how people judge words. There are some that say changing the word doesn't make a difference, especially for the pet--they don't, to my knowledge, understand English/human language all that well. There is no point in changing this thing, say this group, and it's just quibbling over a set of words which are similar anyway.
And then there are people who feel that those words do have power. And frankly, though I don't care whether pets have guardians or owners, I agree with this. "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" was either a sarcastic remark, or a statement from someone who hadn't felt the lash of words. The vocabulary I use influences the way I say what I my thoughts, how others interpret this, and thus the meaning they draw from it. Do not tell me that formal language, of which I am now using, conveys the same impression that colloquial English does. If I suddenly use words that are everywhere in daily life, I come across differently. Words have power. Sometimes more than we think it does.
It's kind of interesting how people are taking this question: some are answering it, straight up, and adding justification either for or against; others are squabbling over semantics (or telling everyone it's about semantics), or bashing the question (I paraphrase: "This is such a tiny issue; if we're caring about this, what about all those human injustices?") and the random spam, of course.
What's neat, though, is to see how people judge words. There are some that say changing the word doesn't make a difference, especially for the pet--they don't, to my knowledge, understand English/human language all that well. There is no point in changing this thing, say this group, and it's just quibbling over a set of words which are similar anyway.
And then there are people who feel that those words do have power. And frankly, though I don't care whether pets have guardians or owners, I agree with this. "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" was either a sarcastic remark, or a statement from someone who hadn't felt the lash of words. The vocabulary I use influences the way I say what I my thoughts, how others interpret this, and thus the meaning they draw from it. Do not tell me that formal language, of which I am now using, conveys the same impression that colloquial English does. If I suddenly use words that are everywhere in daily life, I come across differently. Words have power. Sometimes more than we think it does.
