The Meringue House
Provo, UT 84604
November 2008
Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford University Press
Great Clarendon St.
Oxford OX2 6DP
To Whom it May Concern:
I am generally a prescriptivist grammarian, though I recognize the merits of the descriptivist school; I believe it is the tradition of our language that gives authority to English teachers and editors. So it is you, the prescribers of our language, to whom I apply.
You recognize the manifold responsibilities of the English language to communicate not simply in strings of well-defined but ill-fitting words, but rather through the art of connotation and well-crafted syntax. For example, admonitions such as “have a heart” or “look sharp” are nonsense if understood literally, but said thus, these idioms mean more than their component parts. Even more so, compound words play on the unity of their form: sunshine- a single unit of verb and its subject, or together, or themselves. The form of each highlights the intrinsic unity of the two-words-made-one and so speaks more than each word might alone.
And so I have reached the substance of my appeal: it seems most logical that eachother, as a compound word, be added to the dictionary. Standing separate each and other cannot convey the unity necessary as two friends hug eachother, or two lovers clasp eachother’s hands. I ask you to take this suggestion under serious consideration, recognizing your solemn responsibility to protect and nurture the purity and correctness of our English Language.
Communication is the stuff of our souls given a common voice, and our written language ought to reflect the depth of these souls.
Sincerely,
a girl
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