Such Language!

As you all know, I am a word nerd. But all word nerds are not alike. As in politics, you have your liberals and your conservatives. I'm a liberal. I'm against stupid, petty, arbitrary rules, such as "No split infinitives or you'll burn in hell for all eternity!" and "If you don't want your mother to die of a broken heart, don't end a sentence with a preposition!" because they're rules from Latin forced on a language (English) to which they do not naturally apply. This attitude to language is known as "descriptivism." This school believes that "good" language should reflect how people actually speak and write. In contrast, some fogeys (both old and young) believe that everyone should conform to certain stodgy, carved-in-stone, ivory tower, "why-can't-they-speak-the-Queen's-English?" rules. This is known as "prescriptivism." And let me tell you, the East Coast/West Coast rap feud ain't got nothin' on the descriptivist/prescriptivist one! We word nerds are vicious! To whit, this quote from John August, a screenwriter of the descriptivist (yeah!) persuasion:

Grammarians come in two flavors. A descriptivist studies the way people use a language, while a prescriptivist tries to lay down the rules of a language.

Prescriptivists are assholes. Ignore them.

Amen, brother!

(Via Languagehat, another bastion of sane descriptivism.)