How to Avoid Being a Purist
Life is complicated enough these days. But purist people are still more complicated. There contribution to the complexity of modern living is the repeated claim that many of the natural, carefree and popular expressions that most of us use everyday are "bad english,""incorrect grammar,""vulgar," or "illeterate." In truth, many of the former restrictions and "thou shalt nots" of academic grammar are now outmoded- most educated speakers quite simply ognore them. Students in grammar classes are somewhat nonplused when they discover that correctness is not determined by textbook rules and cant be enforced by school teacher edict.Of course certain words can be considered illeterate, incorrect grammar, bad grammar or vulgar- not because they violate puristic rules but only because they are rarely used by educated speakers.