The Joy of a Finished Decision

I have decided to go back to school! Well, that I decided long long ago. I decided to major in linguistics though and probably just be another bum hippi professor. I already have great ideas for cool assignments though! I should be writing this down.

Anyway, I was inspired to be a linguist because I've been reading a book about the etymology of interesting words and phrases like "posh" and "bamboozle." It's very interesting but the author tends to define the history of a word through a manner which "begs the question" (he gives an answer which has nothing to back it up and requires so much assumption to believe that the answer really should just be another question) which is thoroughly frustrating, yet inspiring. Inspiring because I now know there's a major gap in linguistics, leaving room for people like me. People who believe language and phrases can and should be altered to accommodate for the needs of the users. Phrases don't have to be labeled and stuck up on a shelf to collect dust. If someone calls a man "bald" and we all understand it means "a lack of hair on the head" I'm not going to correct them and say "the orignal meaning of 'bald' is white. That man's head is very tan so you're committing (sp?) a linguistic atrocity." I will, however, excitedly tell young children the previous meaning of "bald" when they ask why the heck a bald eagle is called a bald eagle. It's amazing how many linguists actually fuss about long-dead word usage. How ironic that the same people who call Dickens and Chaucer heros for their word usage would, had they lived during Dickens' or Chaucer's days, have been accusing them of abusing and altering the orinal English language.

Yup--sorry for the rant, but it feels good to know that I'm needed in a field of study. ^_^ So my new plan is to study Japanese, Spanish and linguistic studies. Since both languages have utterly separate origins it may give me a firmer ground to view how languages work--a wider stance, so to speak.