Re: describing the minority as literate is a circular argument?

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>]

> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mailing List" <mlist -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>
> 
> 
> 
> > The rules give you something to go 
> > back to, and they provide a necessary inertia against 
> > the vagaries and ephemera of popular usage.

This is a comforting thought, but the comfort is mostly an illusion. The rules
are only slightly less vague or ephemeral than popular usage. Nor am I aware of
any case in which presecriptive grammar had the least effect on whether a
popular usage was accepted into the language or not.

At any rate, the problem with the rules is that they tend to be a distraction
from the business of writing well. If you need any proof that we have a cultural
neurosis about grammar, just consider how the smallest grammatical question on
this list can generate dozens of e-mail, while discussions about the best way to
structure writing are relativelly rare.

Grammar is fine, in its place. But it has assume a grotesquely exaggerated
importance in most of our minds. As a result, our knowledge and application of
writing technique suffers.

-- 
Bruce Byfield 

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