Workshop

[bcholmes]

[Poll #788357]

Comments

[king-tirian.livejournal.com]

Bleargh! I normally suffer verbing, but there are so many different sorts of workshops that I can't imagine what the verb means. "Advantaging" is ugly, but at least it's clear.

And I'll bite. What did Nero Wolfe say? (I only know what Calvin said on the subject.)

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

Wolfe once claimed that "Contact is not a verb under this roof!"

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

workshopping is pretty close to seminaring, i imagine.

[cigfrain.livejournal.com]

i will confess to having used "antiquing" as a verb. i also carry a hair shirt and a birch flail, for just such occasions.

i voted no.

[the-nita.livejournal.com]

Do I think English *should* be a living language or that workshop *should* be a verb? That's another matter entirely.

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

'To workshop' would mean... to engage in workshop-related activities?

If it's a classic workshop in the sense of a place where you build and fix things, there's already a verb for that -- work. If it's a workshop in the modern corporate-ese sense, i.e. a seminar with participation encouraged, I guess the verb would replace 'to attend a workshop'. It's a hijacked word to go with another hijacked word. Either way, if it's useful it'll live on, and if it's not useful it'll die out.

I can't remember what Nero Wolfe said about it, but I'm probably with him. Smart guy.

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

I just read the comment above, and actually, I don't agree with Mr. Wolfe.

'Contact' is a useful verb. There is no single word that expresses the same idea, i.e. to get in touch with someone by whatever means is available. There are medium-specific words such as 'call', 'write to', and 'email'.

Similarly, 'program' wasn't always a verb. A program used to be a list of events or instructions. As I understand it, someone needed a single word that meant 'to give instructions to or write a program for a computer', and they drafted 'program' into service.

I'm still not convinced about 'workshop'; saying or writing 'workshop' instead of 'attend a workshop' is one of those things that corporate people do when they're working too fast for their own good. Two more little words aren't a big deal. If I ever catch myself saying 'workshop' as a verb, I'll need to slow down and breathe.

[erik]

Yes, English is a living language.
People like me are the antibodies.

"workshop" is not a verb.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

g. Only if used ironically.

[elissaann.livejournal.com]

"Workshopping a new play" -- I've heard and probably even used it. Company I keep and all that.

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

Bingo.

Stories, too.

[lcohen]

right, exactly--i've used it for years and years in this context so it wouldn't even occur to me to be distressed by it.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Right. I consider it jargon, a verb in some contexts, but not always.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

this one bothers me less than some other new verbings -- probably because "shop" is already a verb, and common, so "workshopping" doesn't sound weird.

and really, that's what bothers me, weird-sounding (wrong-sounding to somebody who was trained in grammar by a most stern nun) words in english. i tend to get used to them quickly though. "accessing a file" no longer sounds weird/wrong, nor does "hosting a party".

it's really too bad english doesn't have an official way for derivation like some other languages; it would save prescriptivists so many ulcers. :)

[iamjw.livejournal.com]

But then, I'm with Nero Wolfe on damn near everything associated with language.

[saluqi.livejournal.com]

I've worked in an environment where 'wind tunnel' was used as a verb. So 'workshop' barely registers.

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

It's not just a verb, it's a transitive verb. It's not about "attending" a workshop, it's about taking a piece of creative effort to a creative workshop to gain input in order to improve the final result.

A workshop is a place where you take an object and work on it. For physical objects we have more physical verbs: "built", "made", "hammered", "lathed", "soldered", etc. For an intangible object, the workshop itself is the tool. "Workshop" the verb is to "workshop" the verb as "hammer" the noun is to "hammer" the verb. Given that half the workforce in post-industrial societies works in creative or information fields where the output of work is often intangible objects, I don't see why it should be considered jargon.

Language is a tool, and it changes. People who don't understand or accept that aren't using language correctly.

[angilong.livejournal.com]

I like the livingness of the language. I verb. I even, on occasion, adverb.