765
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] GoodEye8@lemm.ee 12 points 4 months ago

Yes and no but mostly no. Prescriptivists are are great when you need to build a general structure of a language, but language can and will evolve without any intelligent design by the people using it.

The primary purpose of language is to communicate ideas and most of the times the linguistic rules are not necessary to convey an idea.

[-] srestegosaurio@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 months ago

Isn't the primary purpose of languge to think?

[-] GoodEye8@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago

We used to believe it's true, but it has come under question. In fact just recently there was a paper that concluded language is more a tool for communication than thought.

[-] srestegosaurio@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 months ago

I'll check it (and try to understand it). I was thought that in my philosophy class.

[-] Comment105@lemm.ee -1 points 4 months ago

Internal inconsistencies fester and degrade a language if the changes people like you defend are not only left unshamed, but even encouraged as "creative".

[-] GoodEye8@lemm.ee 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

There are language that have lived for centuries without any lexical rules. Any value lost is only in the the eyes of the preceptivists. Language can and will easily live on with all the internal inconsistencies. In fact language rules are usually built around those inconsistencies because the language people speak is more important than whatever rules purists come up with.

this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2024
765 points (96.1% liked)

Science Memes

11448 readers
1391 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS