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True and correct rules?
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:10 am
by metal56
What's your take on the comment below when related to prescriptive rules of grammar? Are there true, correct prescriptive rules for English grammar?
"It is possible that in business there is one way or a few ways that reap maximum profits--more than any other method. If you accept this as true, then you must accept that there can be true, correct prescriptive rules."
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 4:04 pm
by lolwhites
Some prescriptive rules might well be true, but I don't see the logic in the quote; what has making a profit in business to do with whether or not prescriptive rules are correct or not?
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 4:38 pm
by metal56
lolwhites wrote:Some prescriptive rules might well be true, but I don't see the logic in the quote; what has making a profit in business to do with whether or not prescriptive rules are correct or not?
Because there are also prescribed rules for going about making a profit. Such rules are not hotly contested, but, mostly, are followed and taken as "the truth". Are there many prescriptive grammar rules that are not hotly contested and are taken as the truth?
How to earn a million.
How to use the present perfect.
If one is in business or a grammatician, each of those is prescriptive, right?
What about this?
How the present perfect is used in X variant/dialect of English.
If one is talking about one's own variant/dialect, is that statement prescriptive, or is it descriptive?