I agree with stewie. Keep in mind that much of what we call "standard" English today was born from our ancestors' misspellings, mispronunciations and malapropisms. Likewise, the "standard" English of the future will be dictated by the masses, not by the educated minority. And as for the idea given a...

Wow. Haven't heard a rebuttal this masterful since "What about Poland?" 4) As one of the least read authors by the ‘general reading public’ (outside public educational institutions), Shakespeare is the last person you should be citing to make the point you think you're making. Actually, Shakespe...

I think equating "linguistic purity" with elitism and the technically incorrect use of the traditional linguistic forms with populism or evolution is a big, fat liberal knee-jerk that serves only to further the power relationship that created the technically incorrect uses in the first place. It's ...

In my field, we call your attitude "linguistic purism". In short: natural evolution of language is to democracy as linguistic purism is to dictatorship Language is probably one of the truest examples of democracy at work, in which the majority makes decisions on behalf of the entire group. This work...

I vote for Robin Williams. Unlike his one-trick-horse peers, he is an amazing impressionist and is highly skilled at virtually every form of humor I can think of (plays on words, physical comedy, etc.) Also, whenever I have seen him interviewed, he is 10x as fast at coming up with hilarious response...

Not crap.

Do I enjoy watching mediocre athletes, in any sport? No.
Do I enjoy watching athletes at the top of their field, in any sport (except bowling)? Yes.

The ESPN cheerleading championships are, if you ask me, pretty goddamn amazing.

I do laugh a hearty Englishman's laugh when I am, say, playing online poker with the same name and location as it says on the left here, and people from major US cities ask "so is that London, Ontario?". As if! Such tiny incidents remind me just how effortlessly superior in every way we British are...

*sigh* but the forms that music takes are now dictated by the structures imposed by the very non-abstract meanings of spoken language. Wrong. That is only if you (quite erroneously) assume that everyone writes lyrics first, and then music. However, it’s often the opposite case, in which the music di...

Drawing on her fine command of the English language,
she said nothing.



-Nataly

Steve- actually, your spelling is quite good. Disparrage afforementioned If anyone, it’s Kant we should be a bit worried about. At any rate, my only point here was that we can’t really say that new and creative uses of language are “wrong” just because we don’t happen to like them. However, what we ...