Of Gaydar and Archaic Language

There is more to every day language than meets the eye. It is not just a pile of very obvious rules and errors. There is no definite right or wrong way to use language. Okay. There is. But taking into account the fact that words like “gaydar” and “mini-me” are currently in certified dictionaries, there might be a slight aberration from concrete rules of language as we speak.

And so I happen to agree with a certain Robert Lane Greene in his ideas of very often prescribed rules of standard English that he finds unnecessary. According to Lane, there are two types of people when in the bloodthirsty battle fronts of language wars: descriptivist and prescriptivist. Word just underlined the word “presciptivist” in red and so I’m guessing prescriptivists themselves are under a title that contradicts the essence of their beliefs. Then again, Word has never been a very creditable source. The point is, descriptivists describe language as it is while prescriptivists focus on how language should be used. In other words, the former try to comprehend language as it is now and find the intricacies of why it is used in such a manner while the latter are more archaic in their cemented beliefs that language rules from the 17^th century are to be followed in an era where women now have rights and African Americans are ruling one of the world’s “More Developed Countries.” In other words, their mindset is that of one who fails to understand the fluctuating world we live in.

Lane isn’t saying that we should just pay no heed to any language rules whatsoever and become a hodgepodge of chaos. He just happens to be more open in his ideology that while one should follow the rules, they don’t and should not dictate how we use language. Even a certain literary master like E.B White wrote about the proper use of “which” versus “that” and later on managed to make the same mistake he described. Lane accepts that White is a genius and ergo said mistake does not mar his talent in any way. This is seen when he says, “It’s a fine sentence from a fine American writer.” Lane manages to use pathos by appealing to the logic of the reader. If the reader recognizes White as the great writer that he is, then he or she will take a mere language mistake to be less significant. Great writing doesn’t necessarily have to be flawless in its compliance with language rules. Sometimes, it’s the way a person deviates from said rules that adds to a special tone and eccentric style that makes a writer stand out.