Re: History of French

From: Nathan Sanders (nsanders.DIE.SPAM_at_wso.williams.edu)
Date: 09/15/04 

Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 03:48:25 GMT

In article <stdfk013d9ro5ffoup8t5dh2dpq3qs356d@4ax.com>,
 Mxsmanic <mxsmanic@hotmail.com> wrote:

> One should think in terms of whether or not it impedes or enhances
> communication. When everyone has the "freedom" to come up with his own
> flavor of his native language, political correctness is served, but

You're the second person to bring up "political correctness"!

Labeling things you don't understand as "PC" is like, so 90s. Move
into the 21st century.

> > If someone says "not is true", is that a mistake? I think so.
>
> Why is it any more or less of a mistake than "it ain't"?

Because no native speaker of Enlgish systematically says "not is
true", but plenty of native speakers systematically say "it ain't".
The first is therefore a mistake, while the other is an inherent piece
of the native language of the speakers who use it systematically.

> > ... so it must be the mistake of a
> > non-native foreign learner, probably copying some structure of his
> > native language.
>
> You're making an artificial distinction. Why are native speakers
> permitted to make mistakes, but not non-native speakers?

It's not about permission. It's about defining what (the grammar of)
a language is. A natural language is defined by how its native
speakers use it, not by how non-native speakers use it.

Nathan 

-- 
Nathan Sanders
Linguistics Program       nsanders@wso.williams.edu                           
Williams College          http://wso.williams.edu/~nsanders
Williamstown, MA 01267

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