MLA Apologetics

When English professors first banded together more than a century ago to form the Modern Language Association, they did so for the express purpose of preserving and protecting the English language. Now the MLA makes excuses for the corruption of verbal standards.

“The Modern Language Association convention, first held in 1883, is an annual gathering of teachers and scholars in the field of language and literature study,” according to the MLA’s 2005 program. “The convention enables members of the profession to share their ideas and research with colleagues from other universities and colleges.”

“The many sessions present a range of approaches and examine a variety of languages and literary and critical traditions.” So how does this varied approach play out?

“The study of semantics usually reveals the student’s lack of grammar,” Professor Mary Blockley said, before urging the audience of teachers not to do anything about it. Dr. Blockley, who teaches at the University of Texas at Austin, spoke on the MLA’s panel on The Sociolinguistics of Contemporary English.

“Don’t use syntax to beat up on people,” she urged the audience at the MLA’s Washington, D. C. convention. “A sentence fragment can mean one thing in writing and another in speaking.”

“Grammar is like our shibboleth that we can’t be literate without it.”

“The audience is important,” she told her own listeners at the Marriott. Another speaker on that same panel, Dr. Janina Brutt-Griffler, may have inadvertently given Dr. Blockley a preview of coming attractions, showing, in her presentation, what happens when a country’s language is in freefall.

As associate professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Dr. Brutt-Griffler examined the confusion in war-torn Harrare, the capital of the African nation of Zimbabwe. Until Zimbabwe’s military enforced its own brand of martial law, the country welcomed refugees from neighboring countries wracked by civil war.

The resulting population mix now finds communication difficult not only in English but in native dialects as well. What Dr. Brutt-Griffler does not mention is that in all of these nations, education has deteriorated to such an extent that those seeking training and instruction usually leave not only their country of origin but also the continent that it is in.

I know. I am related to many of these denizens.

The other irony is that Dr. Brutt-Griffler entitled her presentation that focused on Zimbabwe, “The Postimperial politics of English.” “Don’t overstate the impact of English,” she warns.

It is a point well-taken. The last British “colonial” overlord of Zimbabwe, Ian Smith, stayed in power for 15 years, when the country was known as Rhodesia. Since Smith stepped down, African-born Robert Mugabe has ruled independent Zimbabwe for a quarter of a century, with nary a recorded thought of stepping down.

Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.