Who will guard the grammarians?
Today is National Grammar Day. Watch your step.
You had better, because you have been given bad advice for years.
In "The Language Mavens," a chapter in The Language Instinct, Steven Pinker expresses frustration at the self-appointed guardians of English usage, the purveyors of rules that are not rules and idiosyncratic preferences masquerading as settled law. That would be, for example, John Simon, William Safire on his off days, many (if not most) copy editors, authors of blogs like this one. To be fair, his scorn for ill-informed prescriptivists is matched by his regret that academic linguists have been ineffective at informing the public.
The article ends with the following advice:
linguists might be persuaded to give some practical help to those of us who, rather than indulging in peevish ranting, are trying to achieve clarity of prose and reasonable practices of grammar and usage in newspapers, magazines, books and electronic publications.
Until that glorious day, you, dear reader, are on your own. Find the people whose advice seems sensible to you, and follow it.
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