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Discussion of "correctness" in language use too often goes the wrong way of involving social status; then, in defense of the ones being impugned, the bizarre argument always arises that "anything understood is correct", which invites its corollaries, "anything understood by the speaker is correct", and then "anything is correct, period". Following that line of reasoning further, of course, results in the loss of the human capacity of language. Without rules, language can't exist.
Then again, a "broken rule" becoming correct is nothing more than the creation of two simultaneous rules, when before there was one rule.
What is correctness? Correct means consistent. That's both the most defensible, explicable definition and the easiest one for learners of the language, both secondary and native. That means that irregularities are flaws to be avoided -- but we should be careful what we deem "irregular", since irregularities of today are sometimes the displaced regularities of yesterday, and remain logical and consistent.
About "would have went", the issue is only the gradual erosion of the past participle. Although past participles live on in their modifying uses until eventually vanishing totally, it's inconsistent, when we have every opportunity to retain the verb form "gone", and while it still remains in the public memory, to create an additional rule.
What's lost with the participle?
Take the past participle form, "talken", which no longer exists (talk, talked, talken). Now we can no longer easily use "talk" in a modifying sense. It's difficult to say "the talked word", because our past tense verbs don't really have a clear rule allowing them to modify. We will instead have to change to another verb entirely ("the spoken word"). So we've handicapped our language by a word, besides the multiplication of rules in the meantime.
Is there such a thing as correct usage in a language.
I often hear people say "I would have went". Is this correct usage? Some people think this is just another form of the language and that we should not judge. I wonder if you can get a job as a teacher of English if you are used to saying "I would have went." Posted via email from Lingosteve's p...
Very entertaining video. I could only afford one Integrated Korean at the time I saw them, so I bought some kind of intermediate one. I have nothing against it.
Like many here, I've realized that my very excess of materials is undermining my confidence in tackling the task of studying, so except for very low sale prices, I now disallow myself from adding to my study library except in languages where I have nothing usable yet.
Korean learning then and now.
A ramble about my previous attempt at Korean and how I plan to proceed now that we have Korean at LingQ. Posted via email from Lingosteve's place
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Jul 9, 2010
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