CriticalDance Forum

Grammar

Have to say I don't see this as the end of civilisation as we know it.

The article starts with a prescriptivist point of viewing, stating that common nonstandard spellings being spread via the internet are "mangling" the spelling of English expressions. But then it seems to lean toward descriptivism, quoting someone from Oxford dictionaries who points out that spelling "is not fixed and can change over the years", and giving examples of currently accepted spellings that were once incorrect.

(I love using my newly-learned terminology, namely, prescriptivist and descriptivist!)

I agree with Stuart.

I've come to believe that it's necessary to know only three English words to survive: "thing-y," "cool!," and "guy" ("blokes" in the King's English), as when the restaurant waitperson says to you, "Dessert, guys?" or the computer IT person says to you, "I'm plugging this guy into that guy, which should make that thing-y over there cool."

As there is a classical idiom structuring dance, so there is a linguistic paradigm structuring English. The vocabulary and arrangement within each is flexible...the tectonics are not. Evolving vocabulary, diction, syntax, etc. do not excuse poor writing or speaking, no more than emergent dance expressions should compromise beautiful technique.

That view is music to my ears, Shalott.