Tuesday, October 11, 2022
Prescriptivist Peevers
Mark Liberman, "Where have all the prescriptivist peevers gone?" Language Log (October 6, 2022):
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Where have all the prescriptivist peevers gone?Prescriptivist peevers are alive and well chez Gilleland. Prescriptivist peeving is a regular part of dinner table conversation between Mrs. Laudator and me. For example, her prescriptivist peeve last night was "left stranded" — "Why can't people just say stranded?" I can't do justice to her rant, which went on for a couple of minutes. My own latest prescriptivist peeve is "lived experience," instead of just "experience." Professor Liberman seems to think this "prejudice" is a disease requiring therapy, but for us it's a harmless, never-ending source of fun, and we have no desire to be cured.
Once mass-media sources were rife with columns and op-eds complaining about kids today and their ignorant, illogical, annoying language. And the growth of social media has given a megaphone for the expression of every sort of prejudice — except, I think, this one.
Are there fewer linguistic peevers out there? Have the counter-peeving arguments gained ground? Or have linguistic peeves been displaced or overwhelmed by other arguments about other issues?
