I've actually gotten a lot less pedantic (no, really) over language the past several years, perhaps with the perspective of decades of watchng language change and various "end of the world" scenarios regarding some particular new spelling, grammatical error, or word use come and go.
I think there are times when ranting and raving as "Weird" Al does about such things is — well, maybe not to that degree — appropriate, just as at times one rants about "kids these days" or "modern art" or "how they canceled that show I love and put on a pile of dog poo in its place."
And there are times when Fry's observations both about loving language and being aware the rules are not all (literally) graven in stone are the way to approach linguistic issues. As Fry puts it, "Context, convention, and circumstance are all."
(And all that said, I think there are distinct differences between heterodoxy in spelling and punctuation, parts of speech and grammar, and word use and neologisms, and it's possible and even healthy to welcome new words joining the English language without having being so sanguine when folk confuse "their" and "there" and "they're".)
(h/t +Doyce Testerman)
Reshared post from +Epidiah Ravachol
Going to leave this here as a mur against the oncoming wave of smug classism heralded by the Weird Al video "Word Crimes."
You spelt "watching" wrong. Get off my lawn!
I had to let a lot of it go once I tried explaining it to my children. Language is too arbitrary to get that worked up about. I can tell you the history of why colonel is spelled like that, but there is no good reason for it.
…But that doesn't make Word Crimes any less funny; and enjoying Word Crimes doesn't make Fry's bit less meaningful.
+Kingsley Lintz Agreed on all counts. Understanding that a lot of the "grammar rules" we have were arbitrarily imposed by a lot of 18th and 19th Century folks who were in love with Latin and who had more time on their hands than they should have helps as well.
I take delight in splitting infinitives and ending sentences with prepositions. I cringe at "apostrophe violations." I have my limits.
+Scott Randel I don't take delight in doing these things, because I just do them. Because those are two (of many) rules which are not even correct. And rules which are not even correct are the worst to get your undies in a bunch over.
I take delight in breaking those rules because I feel they should never have been regarded as rules. When I end a sentence with a preposition, I feel that I am helping the language overcome shackles it should never have been burdened with.
OK, that sounds really pretentious. I just feel that we should not feel constrained by irrational customs.
No, no, you're good. "Overcoming shackles with which it should never have been burdened," now — that would have sounded pretentious.
Where's the +10 button?
😀