View Single Post
Old 04-18-2009, 10:28 AM   #9
Perry Winkle
Esnohplad Semaj Ton
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: A little south of sanity
Posts: 2,259
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiki View Post
I personally find one of the most pleasing aspect of English the way it evolves so rapidly, both as spoken and as written. It is an exceedingly flexible language.
All natural language evolves similarly. It's quite beautiful.

Spelling and grammar prescriptivism are efforts to propagate what is most widely understood. It's a good idea to master the rules for those that want their ideas to be understood by the largest possible number of people.

If you want your children to have the most possible power over their destiny they should be taught these things to a high level of mastery.

The most beautiful thing about language is that efforts to codify the mainstream do not much hamper the natural evolution of the language. I'd say those efforts might even encourage it. Constraints fuel artfulness.
Perry Winkle is offline   Reply With Quote