(no title)
saizai | 5 years ago
Same thing for euphemisms, insults, etc. And uniformity was far less common before mass media and centralized schooling…
Linguists have a much more descriptivist way of looking at language use and change.
Nuance is not a feature of education; focus is. E.g. AAVE (AKA Ebonics) is currently considered a lower class register, but it has grammatical distinctions that standard English doesn't (like whether an action is part of a pattern, vs a one off).
ETA: also, an influx of non-native speakers tends to result in borrowing of both words and grammar from their native languages. Not just in the development of creoles. What's "correct" is purely defined by consensus; if there are lots of new speakers, that's of course going to shift towards their preferences.
No comments yet.