• Dran@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    27
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    Spelling and grammar are important. Language is only as useful as it is commonly and uniformly understood.

    • squiblet@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      That’s kind an argument for not caring about spelling and grammar. We can all tell what Xepp meant. The principle at hand is why linguists say that insisting on rigid grammar and spelling is pointless. Also, language evolves… otherwise we’d be saying thy and thou. Dialects other than the ‘prestige dialect’ spoken and written by people with the highest access to education are considered perfectly legitimate because all that matters is whether the listener can understand…

      • Dran@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Bill helped his brother, jack, off a horse.

        Bill helped his brother jack off a horse

        It doesn’t take much sometimes for a sentence to completely change meaning,l; at best we knew what he meant but struggled through it slightly.