The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #153592   Message #3598513
Posted By: GUEST,Grishka
05-Feb-14 - 09:55 AM
Thread Name: BS: Me, myself, and I
Subject: RE: BS: Me, myself, and I
Lighter, I agree that fuming would be the wrong reaction - who is fuming here? But reflecting on the delicate relation between logic, etymology, and various levels of various languages is a necessity. Those who do not care may still care about their reputation, possibly being flawed by inadequate use of language. Inadequate can well mean "too 'correct' for the context".

For example, writing "irregardless" once, can count as a slip, but whoever does so constantly risks being regarded as a fraud. Colloquialisms, dialects, and slang are quite different categories from such plain errors - even though historically and logically the border may be found variable.

Chaucer and Shakespeare were artists of language, but also men of realism, and definitely open to development of language including creative adaptations from other European cultures - as opposed to later generations of English poets.