among or between?

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Thank you, SLOG, for cross-posting this list of commonly misused words. Grammar pedants (you know who you are) will sigh in agonized relief and pound righteously on their desks in agreement. For my part, I will ask the age-old question: Should the dictionary & grammar rules define usage or vice versa?

Here's a fun game: Go down the list & count up the number of mistakes you've been making for god-knows-how-long*. No cheating (even to yourself)!

*At least according to this list. Which I'm guessing is arguably not definitive.

Comments

Unknown said…
Pardon my language, but fuck prescriptive grammar. Fuck it in its stupid ass. Prescriptive grammar is fucking clown shoes.

No double negatives? Why? Other languages seem to handle it just fine. And that's just the easiest example.

Prescriptive grammar is another tool for maintaining the hegemony, making dialects with different yet consistent grammar "other."

Remember the Ebonics controversy? A good program scuttled and slandered, even to the point of having a retarded label like "Ebonics" attached to it, because utterly arbitrary rules are raised to the level of Natural Law.

I taught my students from a descriptive grammar viewpoint, and their writing improved, because they were thinking about usage instead of rules by rote.

Ok, ok, I'm done. Whew, that felt goood. I worked the preschool today, and had some aggression to work out.
5/11/07, 1:50 PM
JJisafool said…
James? What? Damn gmail account keeps signing me in wrong to f-ing blogger.

My third grade teacher called me James, and a stripper I hooked up with in college because she liked that I was smart.

I'm jjisafool, damnit!
5/11/07, 1:52 PM
(egg) said…
Bless you from head to toe, my grammar-brother! I need to remember to bring you along next time I have a smack-down on this very subject. Smart AND passionate, my friend - that's you.

I also now think that it is deliciously naughty to call you James.
5/11/07, 2:06 PM
Anonymous said…
Keep up the good work.
11/10/08, 8:48 PM
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