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Word use, (circumlunar), 08/11/2018
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I was at the grocery store grabbing some dish washer
detergent and automatic transmission fluid (my car leaks a
bit, it's a short and boring story.) As I was walking out to
my car, I overheard some folks that had checked out before
me talking about getting their groceries into their vehicle.
This is the phrase I heard:
"You done put that <indistinct> back in the car, now we
ain't got no room for nothin'."
Being human, I immediately set to work passing judgement on
these people based on their manner of speech. I'm sorry to
have to admit it, but I feel some pride in the fact that I
at least realize that I'm a prejudiced jerk at times, and
that I largely keep my judgements to myself. As I got into
my vehicle, pondering on my false sense of superiority, I
started to think about the phrase these people had turned so
casually, and which I never would have considered uttering:
"we ain't got no room for nothin'"
I can't fault them for the use of the word "ain't," even
though it was roundly denied me when I was a youth. The
word is now a formal and officially recognized part of
language (whatever that means), and is even a part of my
StarDict dictionary that I use on the command line. It is
colloquial, but *bing*, wake up Joey, the people were
*talking casually*, shouldn't their speech be conversational
and colloquial?
Why am I such a jerk sometimes, even if only in my own head?
If I allow for colloquialisms (as if it were up to me
anyway), then the whole phrase is excused. But as I sat
there, I still wanted to understand the phrase. Of course,
it was clear enough to me that they were saying "we don't
have any room," but why was it clear? I broke it down like
this:
(we) (ain't got no) (room) (for nothin')
(we) (don't don't have) (room) (for nothing)
(we) (have) (room) (for nothing)
"we have room for nothing"
Which of course could also be stated:
"We don't have room for anything."
..or perhaps any number of other ways. The phrase was
clear to me because in spite of the needlessly complex
construction, it was correct.
(I should note here that none of this matters at all, and
that I don't actually care all that much how the people
around me choose to talk- I enjoy the variety- and finally,
that I fully realize my own weakness in language, both
written and spoken.)
My point in sharing this brief experience is to point out
that often when I pass judgement on people without much
thought, my initial judgement is unfounded; and even when it
is founded in some nonsensical thing, it is meaningless in
terms of humanity, reality, sociality, and spirituality.
Moreover, my judgements almost always myopically exclude
a comparative picture of myself, my own faults and
shortcomings; or even worse, they aggrandize my strengths to
the point of nonsense.
I really just wanted to get some dish washer detergent, but
I guess our minds are always wandering this way or that.
(side note: I believe Muphry's Law might apply to my
situation here[1], and I therefore claim my right to be
exused for any errors in my text.)
[1]
gopher://gopherpedia.com:70/0/Muphry's law
