Since last week's post came from a question asked by Gram, I though I'd extend an invitation for grammar questions you have. Is there some sneaky little thing that you can never remember? Did your teachers always circle or count off for something on your paper without telling you why? What would you like to know?
I have quite a few grammar-related things to post about still, but I figure they're a little boring and possibly irrelevant if they're not something you've been trying to figure out. Today, I'm going to post a fun little something from The Grammar Devotional, which I receive in my email regularly from DailyLit. If you're a nerd for all things grammatical, then you can sign up for The Grammar Devotional emails here.
Is anyone else amused to see the little pop culture reference at the end? New words do get made up frequently and old words disappear or change in meaning almost as often. On the first day of my first linguistics course, my instructor informed us that there are only two things we really know about languages: they exist, and as long as they are alive, they change. So once again, even though I'm rather picky about writing things correctly, it's quite probable that ten years from now, I may be able to permit students to write something a way that's incorrect right now. It's not that language is always getting messier or less intelligent (though that is sometimes the case), but that it changes.
There's your little linguistic tidbit for the day. I hope you enjoyed it!
P.S. Did you know that blog is also a portmanteau word? It comes from "web log." Blogger, blogging, and the like are derivations that I believe will be in the next edition of most major dictionaries. I've got to check on that.
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