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The more language is allowed to drift, the harder it becomes to read old language. I think this is a particularly silly case, but in general, the complaint that
by mathgradthrow 11mo ago
The more language is allowed to drift, the harder it becomes to read old language. I think this is a particularly silly case, but in general, the complaint that people are misusing words shouldn't be met with "It's impossible to misuse words", which this argument implicitly is.
- ciupicri 11mo agoWhich language, Latin or English? Who says that in English it needs to have the same meaning as in Latin? Heck, I've reminded about false friends. For example library ("librărie") in Romanian is the place where you buy books, not rent them.
- card_zero 11mo agoMy particular thing is to avoid Latin plurals in English, but I'm never sure how far to take it. Definitely forums, but axises is possibly annoying.
- soared 11mo agoNo one allows or disallows language to drift, there are no language enforcers. This argument is not “it’s impossible” but rather it’s pedantic to claim a word is misused, when it’s been used this way for hundreds of years and so the original definition is no longer applicable.
- card_zero 11mo agoWe are all language enforcers, forcing it to drift in some ways and stopping it from drifting in others.
- soared 11mo agoI suppose that is true and kind of a fun perspective!
- BurningFrog 11mo agoSomeone could of course institute language enforcers for English, but I'm very skeptical about both the enforcement mechanisms, and the usefulness of even a successful enforcement.
- hermitcrab 11mo ago>there are no language enforcers Bodies like the Académie Française do try to promote language standards ('enforce' is probably not the right word). But I'm not sure how successful they are.