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I'm generally sympathetic to descriptivism, but I encourage people to stick to prescriptivist rules in situations where departing from them would lead to reputa
by flashman 10y ago
I'm generally sympathetic to descriptivism, but I encourage people to stick to prescriptivist rules in situations where departing from them would lead to reputational damage. (Then again, it's probably worse to be branded a pedant...)
Of course this situation is manifestly unfair to ESL speakers, or anyone whose lack of familiarity with formal English leads to misconceptions about their intelligence.
- greglindahl 10y agoIt's related to Postel's Law: you can be as prescriptivist as you like for your personal writing, just don't ding other people for being descriptivist, or a second-language speaker.
- adrianratnapala 10y agoI am very much in favour of common politeness. Also there is the plain fact that there is no rule saying every utterance must have correct grammar and usage. But style guides that fail to describe the rules that have emerged over the centuries, and which actively avoid giving guidance on edge cases, do not help anyone. Especially not foreigners wishing to learn English.