alt Hacker NewsAh, prescriptivism versus descriptivism.
Prescriptivism is appropriate for technical or legal discussions, where the specific meanings of words are hugely important.
Descriptivism is appropriate for casual communication, where it's fine as long as your intended meaning comes across.
Replies
lblume • last Sunday at 4:51 PM
Prescriptivism is inherently limited to situations where near-unanimous consent exists between all speakers.
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That's absolutely not what the article is about. Did you even read it?
People don't really have that debate anymore outside of twitter casuals, and it's dismissed with a wave almost immediately in this article, which then goes on to examine the complex grammar of "try and".