Re:JSMpeg – Decode It Like It's 1999
by aninhumer on Thursday February 02, 2017 @06:02PM
(#13555803)
>saying "it once was A, now it's B, so it can never be A again" is exactly as "prescriptivist".
Except I'm not telling you what you can say, I'm telling you what other people do say, which is descriptivist. You can use meaning A if you want to, but don't expect people to understand you.
>You know, if all those other people say they just say it because "most" people do, then none of them actually do have a reason.
That's like saying no one in the US has a reason to speak English, they're doing it just because everyone else does.
Language is about shared understanding, so most people around you using a particular meaning is pretty much the only reason for someone to use it.
Except I'm not telling you what you can say, I'm telling you what other people do say, which is descriptivist. You can use meaning A if you want to, but don't expect people to understand you.
>You know, if all those other people say they just say it because "most" people do, then none of them actually do have a reason.
That's like saying no one in the US has a reason to speak English, they're doing it just because everyone else does.
Language is about shared understanding, so most people around you using a particular meaning is pretty much the only reason for someone to use it.
>you can call it progress
I don't call it progress, just change.