There’s a roundabout \m/. awesome .\m/ review at Salon.com, of an upcoming book about how most grammar police who correct you for improperly using “there” when it should be “they’re” get their own earful of whats-it-to-ya.
The Lexicographer’s Dilemma addresses how the idea that language, as a set and proper form in dire need of enforcement to ensure the greatest literacy quotient among the populace, is just a bunch of ballyhoo. People who think this are prescriptivists while those who believe dictionaries to be newspapers of how language has been used in the past (instead of how words must be spelled in the future) are descriptivists and how the latter bunch have the right idea for the most part.
As lovely as it would be, I doubt the author included my word for indirectly divulging one’s school of thought on this issue, to squiptipadoogleboinkaflop. I’m just glad the book is out and lays it straight ^_^
Thanks for the kind words. I’ll try to work in “squiptipadoogleboinkaflop” in the next edition.