conuly

I can't decide whether this is reductio ad absurdum or just a great big ol' strawman.

I hate arguing with the descriptivists, because they always do this. Look, just because I say that one bloody thing isn't proper grammar doesn't mean I think we should all go back to Old English. It means that THAT ONE THING, which I WAS TALKING ABOUT, is wrong. Characterizing prescriptive grammarians as stuffy pedants trying to drag the language back into the Middle Ages is unfair and uncalled-for. I am not a snob, and I am not an elitist (well, I am, but not because of this) and I am not trying to make myself out like I'm better than everyone else. I just think that the rules we have right now are perfectly good rules, and I don't see any tearing need to go changing them because they're "hard to learn" or whatever the usual argument is.