#64375 - Mormon vs. LDS

[Katya]

http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/64375/

I think it's interesting how the "branding" of the Church has gone back and forth, over the years.

The advantages of "Mormon" are that it's the more familiar term and it has both noun and adjective forms. ("Mormon temple" vs. "She is a Mormon.") The disadvantages are that the term can apply broadly to more than just the LDS Church, which means that Salt Lake doesn't "own" the term in the way they'd like, particularly when it comes to Fundamentalist Mormons.

The advantage of "LDS"/"Latter-day Saint"/"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" are that the terms are specifically owned by the organization which has its headquarters in Salt Lake, which gives them more leverage to request that the media use the terms with precision. The disadvantages are confusion between the two terms (especially when people don't realize that 98% of the people who fall under the "Mormon" heading are LDS) and the clunkiness of the noun forms. ("She is a Latter-day Saint" is too wordy and "she is a Saint" sounds self-aggrandizing.)

Of course, as a linguist, I have to smile indulgently at such attempts to legislate populist language use, since they're rarely successful. (And as a descriptivist, I have to question the mindset behind trying to force the change in the first place. Regardless, I will continue to say "Mormon" or "LDS" as I please.)

[Dragon Lady]

Instead of saying "She is a Latter-day Saint" you could say, "She's LDS." Though, then I always wonder if anyone will have any clue what I'm talking about. Which is weird, because I only really know Mormons…. LDS's? (Another breakdown!)

[Katya]

Instead of saying "She is a Latter-day Saint" you could say, "She's LDS."

Good point, although it only works in that context because you can put either an adjective or a noun in that position.

. . . I only really know Mormons…. LDS's?

And there's an better example of needing a good noun form of "LDS."

[Genuine Article]

Handbook 2 lists the preferred names for the Church, but they seem kind of arbitrary. If you can say the Church's full name and then shorten it to "the Church" in later conversation, why shouldn't you be able to shorten it to "the LDS Church" which to me seems more specific?

http://lds.org/handbook/handbook-2-admi ... ts#21.1.34

[Tao]

If you can say the Church's full name and then shorten it to "the Church" in later conversation, why shouldn't you be able to shorten it to "the LDS Church" which to me seems more specific?

If I were to hazard a guess, it'd be due to the fact that saying "the LDS Church" is saying "The Church of the Latter Day Saints" as opposed to "The Church of Jesus Christ" which is supposed to be the focus.


Because, lets face it; a church led by Latter Day Saints would probably get pretty screwed up pretty fast.