(no subject)

[msmemory_archive]

"Bank of America has always strived for higher standards" but apparently has not striven for better grammar.

Comments

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

Okay, if I remember correctly, you were a linguistics
major, right? So what's *your* take on the apparent One True
Religion that language may only be *described*, and that there
are no "rules", making such things as "have strived" just "a
dialectal usage".

Linguistics has long been something of hobby for me, and recently
I've seriously increased my study. When, for example, I've presumed
to use the word "wrong" in such fora as sci.lang, I've gotten slapped
by the pros.

I'm like "eew" when people conversate bad, y'know?

--- Steve

[jducoeur]

Well, bear in mind that she's not just a linguistics major, but a semi-professional proofreader. That's a job that requires a prescriptivist view.

I am, of course, a hardcore descriptivist, precisely *because* of my lesser but still non-trivial linguistics background: I see modern language's prescriptivist approach to be a weird anomoly that has nothing to do with how human language actually works. If you want a good course that illustrates why I feel that way, borrow The Story of Human Language from me sometime -- it's a really delightful course on how language actually works in practice, with lovely illustrative examples. (Such as the fact that some of English's greatest weirdnesses are precisely due to mistaken prescriptivist notions in the 17th century, which mucked up the language via false analyses...)

*gasp*

[disneybaroness.livejournal.com]

Unca Steffan!?!

How'd you sneak in here?!

Re: *gasp*

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah. Folks (where "folks" primarily = Deanna)
have been encouraging me to sign up, so I finally
succumbed. I still have my reservations, and there's
nothing at my own journal so far, but at least I can
read and comment.

Re: *gasp*

[disneybaroness.livejournal.com]

Well I'm happy you're here none-the-less. :)