It does, and nothing can stop the erosion and terraforming.
Some, however, stand like King Cnut, striving to hold back the waves.
In this spirit, Brit Tom Freeman has written a brilliant parody of Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Modern Major General” that places itself, like King Cnut, on the linguistic seashore as the tide inexorably advances (or declines…depending upon whether you are a descriptivist or prescriptivist.)
The piano plays…
I am the very model of an amateur grammarian
I have a little knowledge and I am authoritarian
But I make no apology for being doctrinarian
We must not plummet to the verbal depths of the barbarian Continue reading “The Very Model of an Amateur Grammarian”