Language is a funny thing. It’s a living, breathing, vibrant instrument that is continually evolving. If that weren’t the case, we’d probably still be speaking Old English. Or maybe Sumerian or Ancient Egyptian, the world’s oldest known languages.
(On second thought, maybe we ARE still communicating in Ancient Egyptian. Are emoji the new hieroglyphics?)
As our language morphs and grows to reflect new ideas and the imprint of successive generations, so too do the rules that govern its correct usage. The pedants among us may be in denial — for despite their resistance, it’s now perfectly acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition or to boldly split an infinitive — but progress marches on, and changes in grammar, punctuation, spelling, word meaning, and usage are inevitable.
That said, some things will ALWAYS be wrong. And this blog is here to shamelessly point them out! Hopefully with humor. Sometimes with indignation, snark, and sass. Maybe or maybe not with compassion. It will be my unswerving mission to keep you from making those scandalous mistakes that cause grammarians everywhere to cringe in horror and secretly wonder if you were educated by illiterate baboons. (With my humblest apologies to all the literate baboons out there.)
But never fear. Along the way, I’ll also take pity and help you navigate the evolving rules, legitimate gray areas, and points of vehement scholarly debate (Oxford comma, anyone?). We’ll traverse this thing called the English language together and make sense of it as best we can. One sloppy bullet at a time.
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