• surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Language purists are veebs. Communication changes. The definition of language is descriptive, not prescriptive.

    • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      Depends on the language, the context, and the application. Sometimes language IS prescriptively defined. Language is more than just casual speech.

      • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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        17 hours ago

        When is language prescriptively defined? Even the French academy can’t stop language drift, despite all their prescribing about it.

      • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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        22 hours ago

        Language is any means of communication among a group. If my throat meat vibrates, and a thought comes in your brain, and that’s the thought I wanted in your brain, then that is communication. If a group of people share a communication, that’s a dialect. A group of dialects where you can understand most of it between each other is called language.

        And at no point does the language dictate what communication is, It’s the other way around.