[Multilingual Monday] Grammatically incorrect
Wow -- I wasn't quite expecting the eruption or argument/debate last week, but if anything good came out of it, it's that I had this rather unexpected theme to write upon and discuss dropped into my lap. Erm, thanks guys? :: chuckle ::
For those who missed it, three was a debate upon grammatical correctness, and what is "correct" and "incorrect", with one side of the debate arguing that what's considered "correct" in grammar rules is not reflective of how the language is actually used, and as I watched this debate unfold -- I realized ... I'd heard this argument before -- say here, among other places. The argument there stemmed from the correctness of בגלל ש, biglal she, "because of", against its more proper (yet so seldomly heard) counterpart מפני ש, mipney she, very akin to the "who" vs. "whom" argument that took place in my journal last week.
So my question here : think of a commonly used feature in a foreign language that gets warnings of "incorrectness" from people who, say, teach school, but that in turn doesn't reflect the commonness of that feature. What is that feature? Why is it considered wrong? What "should" it be according to people who are more strict with their grammar? I'm very curious to hear what you guys can come up with ...
For those who missed it, three was a debate upon grammatical correctness, and what is "correct" and "incorrect", with one side of the debate arguing that what's considered "correct" in grammar rules is not reflective of how the language is actually used, and as I watched this debate unfold -- I realized ... I'd heard this argument before -- say here, among other places. The argument there stemmed from the correctness of בגלל ש, biglal she, "because of", against its more proper (yet so seldomly heard) counterpart מפני ש, mipney she, very akin to the "who" vs. "whom" argument that took place in my journal last week.
So my question here : think of a commonly used feature in a foreign language that gets warnings of "incorrectness" from people who, say, teach school, but that in turn doesn't reflect the commonness of that feature. What is that feature? Why is it considered wrong? What "should" it be according to people who are more strict with their grammar? I'm very curious to hear what you guys can come up with ...