There Is No ‘Proper English’: Ignore grammar scolds. If people say it, it’s the right way to speak

Wall Street Journal ^ | 03/17/2015 | OLIVER KAMM

[Paladin2]

Logic should be mathematical.

[Secret Agent Man]

Common Core’s take on legitimizing ignorance and unsuccessful teaching.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

True.

But the rule applies to language and to math. Maybe the only one where it does.

[KarlInOhio]

Now just imagine those who end up as linguistic descriptivist would respond to a sentence like:

There Is No ‘Proper Temperature’: Ignore global warming scolds. If it is the current temperature, it’s the right one.

Linguistic descriptivism is fine for academic scholars studying languages in their ivory towers. But the vast majority of those dealing with grammar are teachers who must either be prescriptivists or they are wasting everyone's time. It's like the difference between an oncologist who studies the progress of cancer and one who prescribes chemotherapy to slow or stop it. I certainly wouldn't want to have the first as my doctor as he watches how the disease progresses in me without offering a cure.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

You are, sadly, correct.

[dainbramaged]

I wasn’t slamming your post, it was an example...

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

It is in the dictionary. :)

[JRandomFreeper]

Only in your mathematical mind. The great speakers and writers don't always follow that rule. Rarely are math guys also well received speakers/writers.

English is NOT a rational language. Accepting that is the first step to learning to communicate.

/johnny

[SeekAndFind]

More Engrish...



SOMETHING DOMINIC STRAUSS KAHN WOULD LOVE ...

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Word Crimes

A little music to go with the thread.:)

[SeekAndFind]

RE: It is in the dictionary. :)

Well, just goes to show that if enough people use bad grammar, it eventually becomes accepted.

I wonder if Queen Elizabeth or any of the Royals use the word “Ain’t” at all...

[txrefugee]

Being able to speak and write Engish is still required to get a decent job. The only exceptions to this rule are rappers, who are entertaining the lowest common demographic.

[JRandomFreeper]

No. English is NOT a rational language, the way it has grown.

And who sets the rules? There was no committee that set the rules one day and there it was. English has changed for hundreds of years.

The trick is to change slowly enough that the rigid rationalists don't disturb everyone else too badly.

/johnny

[SeekAndFind]

RE: I wasn’t slamming your post, it was an example...

OK, I could care more. :)

[Colonel_Flagg]

The grammatical rules invoked by pedants aren’t real rules of grammar at all.

Ermagerd.

[Ken H]

Oh, why can’t the English learn to speak?

[Mastador1]

There Is No ‘Proper English’: Ignore grammar scolds.

Damn, if only my Son had known this years ago, the money he could have saved in getting his Masters in English! Now I know that many Hispanics and Blacks believe this, but I never knew the WSJ did. Next they will be telling people that math is irrelevant as we've already been told that writing is.

[BitWielder1]

We need to have a common language so we can communicate with each other, rather than merely parse government propaganda slogans.
Breakdown of English is yet another way to divide the American people along regional, status and ethnic lines.
Divide and conquer. They're using it against us.

[NorthMountain]

This is nothing but political correctness because blacks from da hood speak such poor English.

And illegal aliens no habla Ingles ...

[JRandomFreeper]

Amen! You have the right of it.

Either that, or the listener hasn't been exposed to the common language.

/johnny