#64375 - Mormon vs. LDS
Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 7:46 am
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.)
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.)
