X-Message-Number: 17135
From: 
Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2001 11:14:56 EDT
Subject: grammar etc.

Language is constantly changing. Those who choose to stick strictly to 
currently "correct" usage tend to avoid blame but also to prevent 
improvement. 

Many officially approved changes in language are for the worse. The Romance 
languages are in many respects inferior to Latin. In my lifetime there have 
been countless changes for the worse in English--e.g. it is now considered 
correct to use "infer" to mean "imply." 

Many "rules" are strictly arbitrary, and it doesn't make the least bit of 
difference which variation one chooses, except to pedants and nit-pickers. In 
fact, in all earlier times there was much greater variance in usage, since 
there was less literacy and no radio or TV. 

Language is usage, determined by the users--either the masses or the public 
speakers and writers. If there were more writers with more courage, we could 
rationalize English spelling in short order and save a lot of student brain 
power for more important things.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
http://www.cryonics.org

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