i need to find a way to inject this into conversation

[rone]

"... the scourge of descriptivism, or as i like to call it, the War on English."

Comments

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Dude, that is so 1996. The terrorists have won, man!

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Why do you hate English so much?

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

One word: that goddamn fucking split infinitive rule.

But, but, but--

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

If you split the infinitive, it's not one word anymore!

[madbodger.livejournal.com]

You prefer the prescriptivists? No split infinitives for you?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

The proscription against split infinitives is a fairly modern invention, and as such i shun it. It makes no sense.

You are not Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

and I do not claim President Johnson's use of the slang expression "cool it" in a major speech.

[crankysysadmin.livejournal.com]

How about "the scourge of prescriptivism, or as I like to call it, the War on Reality."

(note capital "i" for first-person singular pronoun)

*ducks*

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Hey, i will cheerfully admit that the way i do it is wrong. But i'm flexible when it comes to things where meanings aren't altered, like when qwrrty pointed out that while "irregardless" is ugly and dumb, it can't really be confused for something like the opposite of "regardless". I think this is an important point. Someone else pointed out that a hard-core prescriptivist wouldn't use a word like "cool", and perhaps i wouldn't have fifty years ago, although each generation seems to have its own word for "cool" (dandy, groovy, etc.).

Just like anything else in life, harmless changes shouldn't be disallowed. If a misused word's meaning can only be divined from context, that's not harmless.

[crankysysadmin.livejournal.com]

Aw, I didn't mean to be a jerk. I am a defender of good grammar, actually, but not because it is "correct"; I acknowledge the sociological effect that adhering to the rules of "Standard English" (a.k.a. "White English") has on hearers. In my opinion, it's important to be proficient at playing by The Man's rules so that in a pinch you can a) retain your social status and b) communicate precisely and unambiguously (because lots of people know The Man's rules). Slang definitions and informal usages vary too much by region to guarantee b), but I think informal rules and slang usage are the closest things we have to the core of language creation and development.