7 ms·
If neither usage (#1) nor logic (#2) are acceptable authorities, then language becomes an arbitrary construct subject to everyone's whims. As the author promptl
by zeteo 14y ago
If neither usage (#1) nor logic (#2) are acceptable authorities, then language becomes an arbitrary construct subject to everyone's whims. As the author promptly proceeds to show with his unsupported assertion that "different than is perfectly fine".
- antiterra 14y agoAnd that's exactly how we lost declensions and gained a bunch of Latinate vocabulary. There's no Académie Anglais.
- jmj42 14y agoBut language _is_ an arbitrary construct subject wholly to societal agreement. That's why language evolves over time, why different dialects of a given language develop, etc. Edit: Spelling
- zeteo 14y agoWeb standards were also initially an arbitrary social construct. That doesn't mean we want them to change every year according to the latest popular fancies.
- jamesaguilar 14y agoYet they do. Browser vendors are implementing new extensions all the time, and arguably for better reasons than people changing the language.
- bane 14y agoWhy not? We don't live in 1992 anymore.
- dazmax 14y agoHe didn't attack arguments based on usage, just outdated usage. The point of syntax is to be understood, not to prove you are educated. I'd hope you know what I mean when I say 'different than'. Language is going to change no matter what; being a prescriptivist means leading a significantly more annoyed life.
- zeteo 14y agoAll usage is outdated to some degree. Last year's buzzwords are this year's forgotten fancies.
- nollidge 14y ago> Last year's buzzwords are this year's forgotten fancies. Some of them, yes. A great many are not. Taking your "last year" to be poetic rather than literal: -gate is cliche, "meme" is totally a thing now, "my bad" has diffused into informal communication all over Anglophonia, lolcat-speak still has everybody's great-aunt snorting at her Facebook wall, texting acronyms are well-known to everyone, word truncation + s is on its way to becoming totes ubiqs, etc. Not to mention you're using a pretty useless definition of "outdated" if it includes literally everything.
- michaelhoffman 14y agoWhat the author says is that "usage from years past" does not form some sort of authority. That is a different thing from today's usage, as described in dictionaries.
- nollidge 14y agoI defy you to support your implicit assertion that "different than" is not fine.
- zeteo 14y agoI defy you to stop being so tribalistic. I didn't take position on any side of the "different than" controversy. All I said is that the author did not support his assertion.
- bane 14y ago"then language becomes an arbitrary construct subject to everyone's whims" ding ding ding, you're starting to get it! More seriously, language can be thought of as a middle ground between production of an external symbol as a realization of thought, and interpretation of that symbol in another mind. Even using language adhering to the strictest of grammars, there can be room for misunderstanding in the mind of the interpreter as they will be decoding your symbol expressions through a lens of their own understanding. Adhering to the model you think best does not guarantee clarity of communication! You adjust the production model you use in order to better suit the interpretation model your audience is using. If your use of language is skillful enough, you can even help the audience select from several competing language models in order to add nuance -- you can speak in a vernacular or in a formal mode.