dmiessler.com | grep understanding - Latest Comments in Am I a Prescriptivist?

Re: Am I a Prescriptivist?

anonym — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:42:17 -0000

You misspelled coarse. I'm betting it's the results of a somewhat shortsighted and prescriptivist spellchecker. It could also be argued that " it captures the spirit.", should be " they capture the spirit.".

Cheers!

Re: Am I a Prescriptivist?

Maxo — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:43:15 -0000

I think it depends on the context. If a black person says "aks", I don't have a problem with that in the context of day-to-day speech. If I see it in a professional oration, it makes me cringe.
I try to speek clearly in my day-to-day speech, but when it comes to "Mike, Michelle, and I" I only use that when giving speeches at work or school because I think the grammarians are wrong on that, but they do dictate the professional rules.

Re: Am I a Prescriptivist?

geetarista — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:30:54 -0000

I'm probably the same: somewhere in the middle, but leaning more towards being a prescriptivist. Knowing how language is currently used is important, but current use that is just ignorant and wrong is hurting our language. I don't see a problem with adding a verb like "google" to the dictionary or many other recent changes and additions, but common misuse of lie and lay for example is just wrong.