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As the purpose of communication is to communicate, language ends up being descriptive rather than prescriptive — as frustrating as that can be to the more preci
by voltaireodactyl 2y ago
As the purpose of communication is to communicate, language ends up being descriptive rather than prescriptive — as frustrating as that can be to the more precise among us (believe me I feel your pain).
Or to put it in tech terms: language is a blockchain.
- Detrytus 2y agoLanguage in general: yes, you're right, it's about communication, so it can be a little fuzzy. But for family names it's all about unambiguously identifying a person. "Habsburg" and "Hapsburg" might as well have been two unrelated families, not different spellings of the same name. So, the precision matters here.