In my last post I talked about correctness and about dialects of English and in this post I will continue that discussion and end with some examples of dialect in English language literature. Dialects are not inferior forms of language. Every form of language is a dialect: the standard, if there is a standard, is … Continue reading More on Dialects

I ended my last post with some comments on correctness. I get asked questions about correctness all the time, but it’s not a topic that interests me very much. There’s a lot of “correct” writing which is really dull, and a lot of writing that is not “correct” that’s really interesting. I would rather be … Continue reading I Can’t Get No Satisfaction

This is just a quick question for those who have posted replies to any of the essays. A friend was trying to post a reply and he couldn't do it unless he opened an account. Is that the way it works? You can't just go to the reply box and post? Or can you? Any … Continue reading This is not an essay

One way to study language is to take what amounts to a snapshot of a language at a particular moment and write down a description of the language at that moment. (One can argue that there is no such thing as “a language at a particular moment”, because there will always be different dialects and … Continue reading Synchronic and Diachronic