The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #99614   Message #1991430
Posted By: Amos
09-Mar-07 - 09:15 AM
Thread Name: BS: Declining Standards of English
Subject: RE: BS: Declining Standards of English
The kind of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put, as Churchill allegedly said. :D

In all seriousness, there is a vital difference between grammar which is arbitrary and authoritarian, such as the rule of prepositional endings cited above, and grammar which is critical to full understanding and correct transport of nuance.

Below a certain level of discrimination, it is all, like, I go, "Whatever", ya know? I'm like so going to bend over backwards to make my grammar right--NOT!-- and my friends are all, like, "Right on!".

Meeting the standard of basic intelligent and discriminating communication is far more important than answwering up to nuns with rulers in their hands. Beyond that, it's poetic free-for-all and the passions of the instant, the richer the better.

A