Avoiding doing work that is due at 8 am tomorrow

[deelaundry]

So y'all know I'm weird, right? Some weird bullet points:

- We just saw Chicago last night, and I have a huge yen to see RSL in the Roxie Hart role. I think he would throw himself into it and have a grand ol' time. Maybe have the entire cast be opposite gender from their characters? Not with a wink and a nod, "hey we're in drag" mood (although that would be very fun as well) -- but completely serious, as if each actor is inhabiting a person of the opposite gender. Casting suggestions?

- Speaking of Wilson (oh, we weren't? I guess we weren't), Jane Adams, aka Ex-Mrs. Wilson #2, is going to be in a new HBO series called "Hung," about a regular guy who decides to become a male prostitute. LOL.

- Little Miss Thang at work, you best step off, or we are going to throw down! Most authorities on American English recommend the use of the serial comma, Bee-yotch, so you cut one more out of my communications drafts and I'm'a CUT YOU.

When linguistic prescriptivists battle, they battle, AMIRITE?

Comments

[bell]

LOL. :) I stand by descriptivism, though! And I think if you read more about it, you'll see that it has its place, beyond respecting alternative dialects/speech patterns. It's especially relevant in light of the fact that languages evolve of their own accord. If we were going to be 100% prescriptivist, you wouldn't be using things like "CUT YOU" or "AMIRIGHT" since they weren't at all included in the first dictionaries and grammars made on the English language! In fact, we might not even be speaking English, since it wouldn't have been allowed to come into existance. We'd have stuck with Latin or some other language that imposed its standards on everyone. There certainly wouldn't be an American English.

But, ehhhhh, those are my own issues and probably don't have their place in this post. There's place for prescriptivism too, and it's not in passive-aggressively forcing changes in your commas! Keep your drafts with your serial comma! (Can't you tell her to stop that?)

Also, I would so be behind RSL as Roxie Hart. I'd print out photos and draw little hearts all around them. But it's not secret I'm a fan of gender-bending. ;)

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Descriptivism most definitely has its place! And as we discussed, linguistic prescription has its own place. I liked the Wikipedia articles phrasing of it as "advising." It's about context. Who would want my advice, and under what circumstances? I'm not going to correct the language of either a random stranger on the street or the CEO of my company. I'm not going to insist my friends use Standard English when commenting on my LJ -- I probably wouldn't even like it if they always used Standard English in that case. AMIRITE? But if I beta somebody's fic, I'm going to note errors (or questions raised) in their grammar, spelling, and word choice. Because that's a context where linguistic prescription is appropriate. Of course, even during a beta, there may be cases where creativity is a higher goal than correct grammar. You could mark "SENTENCE FRAGMENT" throughout most of my fics, and I wouldn't change a single one. They express what I want to express.

I'm going on and on, so I'll stop now. OK, one more thing: If you've never read a Miss Manners book, you totally should. They are hilarious -- and she has great analyses of the merits of (appropriately timed, in appropriate context) prescriptivism.

[bell]

I probably wouldn't even like it if they always used Standard English in that case. AMIRITE?

URRITE. FOR STARTERS, THE WORLD IN GENERAL WOULD BE SUCH A SADDER PLACE WITHOUT EMOTIONS. DDD: :(((( ;___; And URRITE with everything else, too!

♥

PS: I r failure at commas. Tru fax. :D