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Channel: Comments on: What Descriptivism Is and Isn’t
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By: Fer O'Neil

I’ve been following this debate with nothing more than Schadenfreude interest. Yes I have an opinion but it’s more fun to watch others wage this battle. Here are another few sources that reference this...

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By: MJ

I think, though, we have to understand Acocella as not, for the most part, referring to linguistics when she refers to “descriptivism” but rather to a general attitude about language (that derives from...

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By: Eugene

When Geoffrey Pullum writes a review of a modern dance performance and gets it published in the New Yorker, readers will get a sense of how inappropriate it is for Acocella to address the language wars...

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By: Jonathon

Fer O’Neil: Thanks for the links. I’ve added them above. MJ: Acocella’s article seems to deal mostly with linguists and lexicographers, though she’s painting with a broad enough brush to cover other...

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By: goofy

This is interesting, both for prescriptivism vs descriptivism and that/which: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/09/27/which-language-and-grammar-rules-to-flout/ Garner’s seems to raise the...

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By: Rob

Goofy, descriptivism has never been about anything goes and descriptivists are not retreating from anything. Garner takes a number of comments out of context and really has no idea of what...

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By: Jonathon Owen

Rob: I think you’ve misunderstood goofy. He says pretty clearly that the “anything goes” position is a straw man. If you’ll check out goofy’s blog, you’ll see that he’s pretty clearly a descriptivist....

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By: Rob

Jonathon, you are quite correct. I went off at half-cock and apologise to Goofy. After reading his post again it is obvious that he is quoting Garner, and that he does, as you say, describe the...

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By: Why Descriptivists Are Usage Liberals | Arrant Pedantry

[…] terrible job of explaining just what that means and why it matters. As I tried to explain in “What Descriptivism Is and Isn’t”, descriptivism is essentially just an interest in facts. That is, we...

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By: Fer O'Neil

I’ve been following this debate with nothing more than Schadenfreude interest. Yes I have an opinion but it’s more fun to watch others wage this battle. Here are another few sources that reference this...

View Article

By: MJ

I think, though, we have to understand Acocella as not, for the most part, referring to linguistics when she refers to “descriptivism” but rather to a general attitude about language (that derives from...

View Article

By: Eugene

When Geoffrey Pullum writes a review of a modern dance performance and gets it published in the New Yorker, readers will get a sense of how inappropriate it is for Acocella to address the language wars...

View Article

By: Jonathon

Fer O'Neil: Thanks for the links. I've added them above. MJ: Acocella's article seems to deal mostly with linguists and lexicographers, though she's painting with a broad enough brush to cover other...

View Article


By: goofy

This is interesting, both for prescriptivism vs descriptivism and that/which: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/09/27/which-language-and-grammar-rules-to-flout/ Garner’s seems to raise the...

View Article

By: Rob

Goofy, descriptivism has never been about anything goes and descriptivists are not retreating from anything. Garner takes a number of comments out of context and really has no idea of what...

View Article


By: Jonathon Owen

Rob: I think you’ve misunderstood goofy. He says pretty clearly that the “anything goes” position is a straw man. If you’ll check out goofy’s blog, you’ll see that he’s pretty clearly a descriptivist....

View Article

By: Rob

Jonathon, you are quite correct. I went off at half-cock and apologise to Goofy. After reading his post again it is obvious that he is quoting Garner, and that he does, as you say, describe the...

View Article


By: Why Descriptivists Are Usage Liberals | Arrant Pedantry

[…] terrible job of explaining just what that means and why it matters. As I tried to explain in “What Descriptivism Is and Isn’t”, descriptivism is essentially just an interest in facts. That is, we...

View Article
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