Improper English in the Watchtower....

Preston

MacHislop posted a quote from a Watchtower on a thread that went something like this:

"….C. T. Russell was patently of that governing body back there in the last quarter of the nineteenth century."

Excuse me, but the expression "back there" makes the Governing body sound like a bunch of backwood hicks. From the experience of an undergraduate student, I know for a fact that using such an expression is improper when writing a college paper. Am I in the wrong here, or are there any other expressions used in the Watchower which transcend improper use of the English language?

Nemesis

Hi Preston,
I think age may have a lot to do with it. They don’t want these new fangled modern “worldly words and grammar” to invade their space. It makes me laugh when they use the phrase “folks” all the time in the magazines. The only people I ever hear use that kind of language here are extremely old people lost in the past. It may be normal usage in the US, but it would sound ridiculous in everyday conversation here; you would just get laughed at.

I don’t think they will ever change, they are too old and senile and too set in their ways. As far as they are concerned they are right and the rest of the JW world will have to go along with whatever language and terminology they want to use.

Sunflower1982

I don't know how often improper English is used in the WTBTS' publications; however, I have noticed that JW lingo is quite unusual compared to that which is used everywhere else. It didn't seem odd when I was an active JW…but now that I've gone through a spiritual 180-degree turn, I often find myself having to translate my JW horror stories from JW-ish to English.

Bang

What are you kidding Preston?

They use current meanings (tossed with the waves and tides), and even then bend them to fit. I'm working on a JW to english dictionary. Here's a start.

Charity from roots - love
Charity from wtbts - almsgiving

Envy from roots - sadness at another's good
Envy from wtbts - coveting

Humble from roots - knowing where you're at, down to earth
Humble from wtbts - being subservient, doing as your told

Jealous from roots - guarding and protective demeanor
Jealous from wtbts - envy

Responsible from roots - able to respond
Responsible from wtbts - legally duty bound

seedy3

HOLD ON HOLD ON HERE!!!!!

Have you all been gone for so long you forgot??? They speak the pure language

And I quote:

Watchtower Jan. 15, 1991

All need to be concerned about learning and speaking the pure language, for only those doing so will survive Armageddon.

May 1, 1991

Only those who learn and speak the pure language will be joyful survivors.

So this means you have no business telling them how to speak or write as they have a pure language as apposed to your flawed English.

LOL

Seedy

SixofNine

I suspect it is a very old quote, and wouldn't have sounded nearly as "out of place" back there in that time period. (That's patently not to let our grandparents off the hook for not seeing through these YAHOOS)

caballoSentado

Preston:
Could you tell me which WT?, date, page?. I'm interested not in the way they spoke but in the assertion itself. There was no GB at that time!
Caballo Sentado

Sam Beli

Remember that most WT writers have only a high school education at best.

Having been raised by JW parents I seldom read anything but WT literature. Naturally, I assumed that their English was near perfect. I thought that their run-on sentences were an efficient way of cramming as much info as possible into one sentence. I was nearly laughed out of English class on a couple of occasions.

Sam Beli

"...religion opposes the commandments of Almighty God." Violence by J. F. Rutherford 1938

Preston

Caballo, here is the link you were inquiring of....

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=27260&site=3

DazedAndConfused

It's funny but all the time I was growing up I thought that the WTS had grammar down to a science. I thought it was written in perfect English. In fact my father tries to find things wrong, because he is a perfectionist, and one day he was so excited because he had found a mistake in spelling. Well it turned out the spelling was correct and instead of being disappointed, he was elated because this is part of what proves the Joho's as being right, words coming right from God and all...(puke)

It wasn't until I started coming to this board and copying/printing the quotes did I see a lack of sentance structure. I have found while copying quotes into my MicroSoft Word that it has alerts all over the place regarding sentance structure. I am not sure that it has had "real" spelling errors due to the fact that the J's have their own language...much like many other cult's out there.

Disclaimer:

While I expect that a publishing company should have a complete grasp of the language they are printing in...I however do not have a total grasp. So, don't pick this post apart for grammar. haha

Improper English in the Watchtower....

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