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Grammar pedants - help please.

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Lyra OK Sep 2007 10:22am, 25 Sep 2007 1,935 posts	0 Lyra OK I knew I could rely on you lot. Must get my copy of 'Eats Shoots And Leaves' back, I miss that book. Hmm, statuses I think: en.wikipedia.org
Fat Dave Sep 2007 10:22am, 25 Sep 2007 1,080 posts	0 Fat Dave Mac - the idea that there is even such a thing as correct usage is actually relatively recent (last couple of hundred years or so)... and even that derived from books describing how the rich people already spoke, in an effort to allow social climbers to fit in, which eventually began to be viewed as "the rules". Until that time, for example, a double negative was commonly viewed as just a really big negative. Everything is permissible, it just depends on what's appropriate to get the desired response in your audience. Language is the currency of thoughts - but it's fiduciary issue.
Diogenes Sep 2007 10:26am, 25 Sep 2007 2,344 posts	0 Diogenes It is just status isn't it?
Hoaxster Sep 2007 10:27am, 25 Sep 2007 9,914 posts	0 Hoaxster Lord have mercy, it's the extended elipsis! - but it's [b]a[/b] fiduciary issue. makes tea
Maclennane Sep 2007 10:27am, 25 Sep 2007 4,785 posts	0 Maclennane How can you have a plural of status? FD, whether recent or not, grammatical rules give shape to a language, allow intonation and inference and subtlety which would otherwise be lost. Besides those without a decent grip on grammar will never learn a foreign language half well, certainly not one like French which is more irregular than regular.
Diogenes Sep 2007 10:29am, 25 Sep 2007 2,345 posts	0 Diogenes Ah, no, Huge was right. That's undermined my statuses as a grammar pedant and plodding dictionary.
Fat Dave Sep 2007 10:29am, 25 Sep 2007 1,081 posts	0 Fat Dave But they only have meaning when common to both the author and recipient. As long as they have common rules, they can be whatever you like. Grammar describes what language does. It doesn't define what it should do.
Hendo Sep 2007 10:29am, 25 Sep 2007 10,269 posts	0 Hendo This thread is giving me a semi-on.
Fat Dave Sep 2007 10:30am, 25 Sep 2007 1,082 posts	0 Fat Dave TXT msging is a c8s in pnt. It's not ungrammatical, it's just a different kind of grammar. Innit.
Fat Dave Sep 2007 10:30am, 25 Sep 2007 1,083 posts	0 Fat Dave It's giving me a semi colon.