A confession to make....

[conuly]

Although I do dislike prescriptivism, the reality is that my normal dialect is actually very close to Standard American English. I even use the subjunctive, and the word whom. It's tragic :(

When I say things like "youse guys" or "djusk' a" or the random Latin, I'm doing that consciously because I want a more interesting idiolect.

I'm sorry for misleading people.

*sniffles*

Well, that's done. Now we can forget it ever happened, okay?

Oh, and something else - just because prescriptivism is evil does NOT mean that I have given up the right to thwomp you all seriously for saying something nonstandard (if I think that's what you're trying to do). If you don't want to be corrected, you should say so, because I hate to see something that's very nearly standard, but not quite. So if you're typing standard english, standard english, standard english, between him and I, standard english - expect me to yell and change the I to a me. And explain why. Ad nauseam.

Thank you.

Again, let's just forget this ever happened.

*runs off*

Comments

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

Ugh. "Him and I" drives me insane too.

The reason I "prefer" standard English is because I want rule-breaking to make *sense*. Rule-breaking only has power if there is a standard and there is a meaning behind the rule-breaking.

I suspect, from this post, that you may be of a similar mindset but are approaching it from a different angle.

[conuly]

Nah, not really. I don't see it as rule-breaking UNLESS you're trying to speak SAE and failing. That irritates me.

I do see the purpose of a standard dialect. I don't, however, agree with the way ours is set up (sorry) nor with the idea that standard = correct. That irritates me a LOT.

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

Ok, I think we're going to have to define a few things in order to have this convo. heh.

When I say I "prefer" it, I just mean I prefer it in those who think they're trying to speak it. Dialect is something quite different. They have their own governing rules that work just as nicely and can be just as expressively beautiful as any other language. Still, they are governed by a set of rules which may or may not have anything to do with the "standard." These rules, like those of standard English, guide people in their understanding of that dialect; and when the rules are broken, it grabs attention.

Thus, when I say I "prefer correct English," I mean that if you're speaking Standard English (or think you are), I'd prefer that you do so "correctly" by its rules. Because, as I think we agree, you just won't convey your meaning properly if you don't play by the same rules (and by "play by the same rules," I mean break them only when you mean to in order to convey a different meaning).