Mmn, that's getting pretty philosophical now. Can one person make a rule, without either being mandated to do so, or having other people validate the rule by accepting it?
I sympathise with your internal conflict!
"English Grammar" is merely a description of a consensus
This is very true, and one doesn't even need to go as far as talking about individual people's grammar(s) etc (though I think there is truth in that as well); there are a variety of 'correct' usages as demarcated in dictionaries and style manuals for a very wide range of spelling and grammar issues, such as placement of commas and punctuating inside or outside quotation marks and so on. Which, of course, has been my point all along.
I still feel people are WRONG! if they form the plural of "octopus" as anything other than "octopodes" (especially if they use "octopi") but I do admit that they are not necessarily 'wrong' by both dictionary and common-usage standards ;-)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-02-22 04:01 pm (UTC)I sympathise with your internal conflict!
"English Grammar" is merely a description of a consensus
This is very true, and one doesn't even need to go as far as talking about individual people's grammar(s) etc (though I think there is truth in that as well); there are a variety of 'correct' usages as demarcated in dictionaries and style manuals for a very wide range of spelling and grammar issues, such as placement of commas and punctuating inside or outside quotation marks and so on. Which, of course, has been my point all along.
I still feel people are WRONG! if they form the plural of "octopus" as anything other than "octopodes" (especially if they use "octopi") but I do admit that they are not necessarily 'wrong' by both dictionary and common-usage standards ;-)
(Reposted to correct bad html, sorry.)