[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 122 KB, 536x572, disgust.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9880195 No.9880195 [Reply] [Original]

>the English language is so backwards that there are websites that measure the frequency of common variants for phrases (such as Corpus of Contemporary American English) because there's no official fucking rules written down anywhere by a serious respectable organization.

>> No.9880199
File: 126 KB, 619x757, GenericWhiteWojak.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9880199

>>9880195
>being a prescriptionist linguist
>2017

>> No.9880215

>>9880199
>work as an editor or translator
>"no rules anywhere lol anything goes"
>every time you have doubts, you have to check the frequency or just take a wild guess
>meanwhile in serious languages you have a set of rules

>> No.9881081

>>9880199
>linguist
>prescriptivist
Pick one.

>> No.9881102

>>9880215
People have tried to make languages rationally using consistent rules. It never works. Real, natural languages emerge based on whatever people happen to do over time. You can't force it, the best you can do is study how actual people use language and learn from that.

>> No.9881118

>>9881102
There's a difference between no guidance whatsoever and a set of common indications that can be used creatively.
This applies to most European languages, and I would not say that this led to the formalist dystopia you're describing.

>> No.9881130

>>9880215
Editors just use a common style manual, or have their own particular style standards. This is how language works regardless of whether or not there's a prescriptivist institution properting to govern proper usage.

>> No.9881135

>>9881118
This already exists for English. Publications each have their own standards, and most Americans just use the Chicago Manual of Style.