C.E. Jottings

Vulnerable to nonsense and worse

I happen to believe that words matter. In the summer before I went up to University College London to read English Language and Literature, we were sent a reading list. On that list was "The Use of English" by professor Randolph Quirk. In it, Quirk set out 12 uses of language, one of which (from memory) was to convey thoughts. Below, Quirk added a 13th to his list, that some people use language to disguise the fact that they have... Read more →

"Language which dehumanises leads to abuse of human rights" Jenny Morris on Twitter

For my first blog post after another period of silence, I am republishing with her permission an entire posting by Jenny Morris "Language and the small places of human rights". The posting is nothing to do with conductive education as such, as Jenny suggested I might point out. However, in writing about language and human rights, Jenny deals with issues which - and I hope you will agree - should concern us all. The subject line of my posting today... Read more →