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comment by Quatrarius

that's where the descriptivism comes in because it allows you to sidestep this whole thing

prescriptivists should exist, but they shouldn't be enshrined or taught in anything other than persuasive writing classes and they definitely shouldn't be put on the same level as like... things that are actually useful

but really we agree here, just we have different styles of rambling





kleinbl00  ·  1556 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I bailed so hard on the whole fucking nightmare so early on that I'm having to look up "prescriptivists" and "descriptivists"

Quatrarius  ·  1556 days ago  ·  link  ·  

it's a language study jargon thing (although i've heard it in philosophy abt morals?): prescriptivists are the ones that prescribe rules for language ("never split infinitives!") and descriptivists are the ones that describe the way people actually speak ("in english, adverbs are often placed between verbs and the infinitive particle to"). i'm bringing it into the wider world because i think it captures the distinction between Humanities the institution and humanities the study of society/culture - the Humanities try to tell you what's good or bad and the humanities tell you the things that are out there and what purpose they have

i'll define my keyterms a bit better next time

kleinbl00  ·  1556 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I looked 'em up and determined that they were useful and descriptive. By all means, carry on. Just know that the entire world was lost to me early for exactly the reasons under discussion so I gotta play catchup sometimes.