In our own day, the threat would seem to come instead from a new trinity of technology, globalization and business, which seem to exert a pragmatic pressure on language, to undermine the idea of language as an end in itself.
This may sound extreme, but part of the pleasure of Gordon's work is the coiled pressure of her language and the severity of her observations.
Experimental psychologist Steven Pinker famously described music as "auditory cheesecake," something that is pleasurable but has no adaptive function, arising as a byproduct of other evolutionary pressures, like the pressure that led to the development of language.
There's no pressure of reality on the language used: it's merely paraphrasing from other sources.
All of this gives Google and anyone else who wants to jump into the discussion time to build its case without the pressure of inserting anti-censorship language into impending trade deals.
Women – including those who work in senior positions for some of the country's leading firms – are held back from reaching the very highest levels in business because of the difficulties they find in striking the right tone of language during high pressure meetings.
When Schoenberg's Second Quartet followed Monteverdi's madrigal version of his "Lamento d'Arianna," it came seamlessly, putting the same kinds of pressures on the language of tonal harmony in the interests of expressing lassitude and dejection.
Recently, international actors have invested in the development of communities of practice that aim to share information across countries and across different types of actors, but these often face serious challenges in terms of language barriers, time pressures on participants, and maintaining up-to-date information.
It's not true, however, that David and Don Was came under pressure from language purists to change the name of their band to Were (Not Was).
