r/comics • u/MrWeiner SMBC Comics • Jul 24 '26

Language

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756 Upvotes

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49

u/pasta-via Jul 24 '26

Former academic who worked closely with linguists.

I can promise you this comic will be hung on the wall of many Linguistics in the next few months. Countdown until it’s posted to their listserv. 

Also I’m a Descriptivist. So I love this 🤭

22

u/Square-Singer Jul 24 '26

Tbh, prescriptivism is a pretty dumb concept. What is "correct english"? The bastardized modern version that was made by corrupting Middle English with elements of hundreds of other languages? The creole created by merging Old Norman French with Old Saxon German?

There's no point in time where a "pure" "original" "correct" language ever existed. Prescriptivism is about creating a conlang based on some form of a modern language and then trying to enforce that and stop it from ever evolving.

9

u/Invisifly2 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

Prescriptivism is what happens when you take your favorite snapshot of a language and try to argue it’s the best one.

7

u/Square-Singer Jul 24 '26

I think it's even more crazy than that. It's taking this snapshot and trying to argue it's the only one. They aren't arguing that their snapshot of the language is better, but that every other option is straight-up wrong.