Gandalf the Gorsed

I suppose you’re the type of person who believes that once an error gets enough momentum it is no longer a error. That is literally how language works. If you have any idea about historical linguistics, you would know this. While I recognise that we no longer speak the English of Shakespeare, it’s a very different thing to suggest that when people make grammatical errors today, it’s just a part of the natural development of a language. Do you have some proposal to make about how “natural development” occurs as opposed to errors that gain momentum that somehow we overlooked as linguists? Do you seriously think people were any less incensed by changes in pronunciations and grammar 1000 years ago than they are today? As someone who actually studied historical linguistics, I can tell you that there is no distinction between natural development and errors that gain momentum. Is there some kind of guiding force that makes it okay for palatalisation to occur in Old English but not for t-glottalisation to occur in Modern English? Or is it okay for the grammatical case system to “naturally” disappear everywhere except pronouns, in which case it’s a horrible modern error? I think you’re right that language changes differently in some ways these days, in particular due to widespread literacy and enforcement of certain grammatical standards in schools. But the reason these standards have to be enforced is because they are often in opposition to what are actually already well-established grammatical rules in spoken language. To be clear, I’m in no way arguing that we shouldn’t teach formal grammar for writing and higher register use, but you need to understand that this doesn’t invalidate the very real grammar of other registers.

Because that’s not how language works. Whether you like it or not, it’s pretty well established in colloquial English that you can say me + another subject + verb, and being pretty well established is all that it takes for something to become accepted language. Of course, you wouldn’t use this in higher register speech or writing, but realistically complaining about it won’t do anything to stop speakers from doing it. One of the first things you learn when you study linguistics is that language is a highly complex phenomenon and we try to find logical frameworks to explain its usage, but language has a habit of not adhering to the laws we come up with to describe it. If there’s a mismatch between actual use and the rules, then it’s the rules that need updating. And this applies to all languages, not just English.

No, they caught her with Anette

Depends on which support agent you get I guess

TIL Scotland and Wales don’t exist