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nothing more annoying than a prescriptivist, cause they entirely miss the point of what language is (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/linguistics@mander.xyz
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Language is a toolkit to communicate ideas, and a toolkit frozen in glass is a useless toolkit.

You need to swap out that hammer when it starts getting damaged, or put back a screwdriver when you find out you need it again, or add new tools when you find that the tools you have now aren't fit to purpose.

And sure, there's some loose screws at the bottom of the bag, but they don't harm anything, and very occasionally they come in useful.

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[–] [S] 1 point 3 months ago*

To go back to my metaphor, the difference between someone going "you should use a 2.4mm posidrive for that 2.4mm posi-head screw" when a 2.5mm will work, and someone going "you should use a hammer, not the back of your screwdriver, to hammer a nail"

Like, former one is not gonna affect anything and it's being pedantic, the latter one you're actually being helpful.

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