Hm. Was I over the top, here?

[conuly]

As you can see, this sort of argument drives me a bit batty.

But was I too sarcastic? I don't want to irritate people excessively.

Comments

[conuly]

Um, change "forms of the same dialect" to "descended from the same dialect".

Basically, that argument says one of two things, which I find equally silly. The first is that language should not change any more. I don't understand this. Why shouldn't language continue to change? If it's changing, that's because it is no longer meeting the needs of the speakers. The second is that people shouldn't speak any form of the language but the standard. Again, why? If people are not speaking the standard, it is because the standard is not meeting their needs. There is no logical reason to prefer one language or dialect over another (at least, there isn't so long as everybody understands everybody else), so why ask people to speak all the same one?

[cumaeansibyl.livejournal.com]

Honestly? I don't care how people talk. I really don't. I'll cringe if someone says "irregardless" or "orientated" or other things that aren't actually words, but I'll keep my mouth shut.

HOWEVER. If someone hands me a paper, and asks me to give suggestions, I am going to get out my red pen and I am going to make that paper's grammar roll over and OBEY ME. There's the way you write if you want your work to be taken seriously, and then there's the other way. (Oh, and as for who decides -- CMS, baby. Kate Turabian was an unappreciated goddess.)

It doesn't even have to be that the academic standard is the only right one (although I'm very partial to it). It's just the standard for the academic setting, and if you want to be a contender, you'd better live up to that standard.

[conuly]

Y'know, you might've said that before I went off on you!

*feels vaguely silly*

And don't tell me you said that. I feel silly as it is.

[conuly]

Actually, that reminds me of something I read once, about batman suits. It'll come to me....