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I liked his podcast Lexicon Valley so much that I went back and listened through every episode. It’s had a large impact on my thinking about language and empathy for communication. I went from thinking there was a “right” way to use language, to understanding that it’s all about communication, and there are nearly endless patterns in which languages are structured.

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Descriptivism vs prescriptivism are the two extremes of modern English linguistics. I've found most prescriptivists cite style guides that were written in a time and location when the dialects involved weren't as far from one another and social class signaling were considered important.

Today, English is global language with an astonishing amount of variation and learning to communicate in English is as important as learning to understand it in all its glorious forms. It places the burden back on the receiver to learn the local mode rather than an Imperial style self-assuming greatness seeking to subdue conquered peoples.

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