.
Jenny H.,
Jennifer Dittrich,
Andrew C (✔),
Brent Schaus,
OCoG of FF, Jimminy,
WoH: Professor MOTHRA,
and
Victor Ganata
liked this
*pen drop*
- That's So CAJ!
Curiously, there's at least onomatopoeic agreement. http://www.onomatopoeialist.com/sigh...
- Micah
They've got a point but at the same time...why bother having grammar books, dictionaries or any other rules/guides to language if all you have to do is just blast your mistake to as many people as possible to make it the new majority? Does "would of" really make any sense? Instead of a helping verb "would" is now a helping preposition?
- Spidra Webster
I will fight most forms of improper grammar. I'm not perfect and I get lazy or take short cuts that make sense to me, but improper grammar can lead to confusion.
- Heather
To me the point is it's okay to acknowledge the two forces that forge language: replication and mutation. Like life itself. Here's an even-handed post that gets the lay of the land on normative language discussions: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll... . Another post with some good tidbits: http://www.academia.edu/504346...
- Micah
The main issue I have with prescriptivism is the way it's used to repress people who aren't as privileged. There are generally understandable reasons why people end up using non-standard language, and it's rarely because they're essentially idiots.
- Victor Ganata
The flip side of descriptivism is that, yes, there is such a thing as standard language and formal register. It's really just the idea that using them is somehow a proof of intelligence and/or high moral character that I find distasteful.
- Victor Ganata
I'm generally a descriptivist, but … oxford comma ftw!
- Amit Patel