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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   36912 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 22, 2024

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I agree with others downthread that linguistics per se is and ought to be descriptive, but that there's nothing wrong with having and enforcing prescriptive rules based on some standard form of a language. This argument, when it isn't a vehicle for fighting over the relative social status of different class/ethnic groups, mostly boils down to some people choosing to emphasize the fact that such standards are arbitrary, as opposed to the fact that we need them in place to communicate.

As for myself, while I have my own idiosyncratic pet peeves (proper use of the subjunctive is one I picked up after learning a few Romance languages), I've mostly gone from being a pedant to finding great amusement in deliberately provoking pedants and watching their heads literally explode.

mostly boils down to some people choosing to emphasize the fact that such standards are arbitrary, as opposed to the fact that we need them in place to communicate.

A standard can be both arbitrary and necessary. My pet example of this is roads: sure, it's arbitrary whether a country mandates people drive on the left side of the road or on the right, and it doesn't really matter which one of those two they pick… but it's absolutely essential that they pick one.

Surely they aren't literally exploding?

I think he was demonstrating that he was "deliberately provoking pedants".

Although, I suppose that sufficiently harassing someone might cause him/her to eat his/her gun, which would cause his/her head to "literally explode".

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