Being of a descriptivist leaning in matters of language doesn't mean you "don't care" about language, or have no firm opinions about its usage, or think we should all just live in anarchy. It just means we don't go around alternately wringing our hands at and handing down jeremiads against those "heathens" who dare transgress some niggling little rule or another. We think language is beautiful because of its malleability: language is always changing, and that's great! We get our kicks from looking at and understanding language change from a historical/cultural/social/linguistic viewpoint, not in denigrating those who don't hew to some sort of imagined golden age of stylistic purity. We understand that all the hand-wringing in the world isn't going to stand in the way of split infinitives or the use of "ain't"; we cannot change the ever-changing. Being a descriptivist also means that we (try, at least) to overcome the pride and elitism at the base of much prescriptivist thought.
Language is not just for a few stuffy, self-appointed arbiters to hoard and lord over; language is for everyone!
3 comments:
Thus we must take language away from the French.
EXACTLY, Gunn!
Feh, I still think people who use "like" repeatedly should be executed on the spot.
Post a Comment