What‘s something that seems obvious within your profession, but the general public seems to misunderstand?
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Sure it stops being wrong, otherwise legal documents would read like Beowulf
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They kind of already do...

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Right, language is fluid and changes over the ages. Once it’s accepted colloquially it’s generally accepted for that use.
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Y’all are describing the tension between Descriptivism & Prescriptivism wonderfully
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I really struggled with the idea that descriptivism is ok when I first started taking linguistics classes for ESL certification. I had a hardcore prescriptive grammarian teacher in high school English.
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Sometimes people feel they were made to learn these prescriptive rules, so others should do. Sometimes it's from a misguided belief that the language is being coarsened by new ways of using it. Sometimes it's a pure class marker / snobbery. Sometimes it's just fear of change.
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And some of those rules are okay & necessary for clarity. People *should* learn them. People should also learn the importance of evolution & when it’s appropriate to bend or break rules. A grammarian I once worked with always said, “Clarity above all else!”
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Yes, evolution is important, but I feel some changes impoverish the language. E.g., when people use "disinterested" as a synonym for "uninterested", it's just superfluous & threatens to extinguish understanding of what I think is a really useful, distinct word.
- 2টি আরও উত্তর
নতুন কথা-বার্তা -
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“Wrong” isn’t quite correct though, is it - after all, it’s only wrong according to previous usage, and language is fluid
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yeah I’d agree with that.
কথা-বার্তা শেষ
নতুন কথা-বার্তা -
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Yup, dictionaries have a board that votes on whether a usage is now considered part of the language. Highly recc Grammar bootcamp from Great Courses. The instructor is one of those people who decides.
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thanks, I'll check it out
কথা-বার্তা শেষ
নতুন কথা-বার্তা -
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Language is fluid.
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yep, that’s the beauty of it imo :)
কথা-বার্তা শেষ
নতুন কথা-বার্তা -
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Nor proscribe. Dictionaries are a reference work based on usage, in fact they endeavour to identify first usage. I’m being a peedant again
- কথা-বার্তা শেষ
নতুন কথা-বার্তা -
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I prescribe your first period be outside the closed parenthesis.
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hmmm, I guess that's fair enough. I think it's just I've got so used to always putting them inside, as my academic advisors wish!
কথা-বার্তা শেষ
নতুন কথা-বার্তা -
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This is the reason why the word ‘literally’ has two meanings now, the second of which is (literally) the opposite of the first meaning i.e figuratively.
ধন্যবাদ। আপনার সময়রেখাকে আরো ভালো করে তুলতে টুইটার এটিকে ব্যবহার করবে। পূর্বাবস্থায়পূর্বাবস্থায়
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It’s all about acceptance though -right or wrong we still think we need to check the words we use to represent our values. I call BS- I say - we all know the real truth -and this is BS
ধন্যবাদ। আপনার সময়রেখাকে আরো ভালো করে তুলতে টুইটার এটিকে ব্যবহার করবে। পূর্বাবস্থায়পূর্বাবস্থায়
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লোড হতে বেশ কিছুক্ষণ সময় নিচ্ছে।
টুইটার তার ক্ষমতার বাইরে চলে গেছে বা কোনো সাময়িক সমস্যার সম্মুখীন হয়েছে আবার চেষ্টা করুন বা আরও তথ্যের জন্য টুইটারের স্থিতি দেখুন।