[PLUG-TALK] begging the question

Paul paul at punkrockbunnies.com
Sun Oct 4 18:47:50 UTC 2009


On Sat, 2009-10-03 at 19:53 -0700, Denis Heidtmann wrote:

> >
> I am having a little trouble with this, being a bit of a
> prescriptivist.  Shouldn't an utterance be unambiguous (unless
> ambiguity is the intention)?  

Well descriptivism is not relativism, it just aims to describe common
usage while recognizing that this varies.(Funnily enough my spell
checker is set to British English, but I used the American spelling for
that last sentence and is throwing a little prescriptivist hissy fit).
Nothing in it says you can just make stuff up. Ambiguity is a different
matter and it is, perhaps, not safe to assume there is such a thing as
an unambiguous utterance. 


> Or perhaps the discussion should be
> about who qualifies as a native speaker.  If the intent is
> communication, then utterances which grate are a distraction, and
> interfere with communication.  

Well I'm English, but resident in the U.S. and new enough here that
plenty still grates, I don't think I am going to get away with insisting
I'm correct (And the descriptivist in me knows that would be nonsense).

Paul M

> Notice I did not use the word
> "correct".
> 
> -Denis
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