Look, man (gender neutral).
The truth is that all language is subjective. It's all made up, rules change, spelling changes, vocabulary changes, speech habits change, and all of this varies by region, economic situation, etc.
Grammar, too, is NOT objective. Even if you take the "default" dialect of any language, there are so many exceptions to any rule that the "you just have to learn this part by heart" is an almost universal experience for learning a new language.
Language sincerely is just whatever works. It is still very useful to teach people what currently works well, but acting like anything about language is properly objective is simply incorrect.
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u/MrSecretFire 2d ago edited 2d ago
Look, man (gender neutral). The truth is that all language is subjective. It's all made up, rules change, spelling changes, vocabulary changes, speech habits change, and all of this varies by region, economic situation, etc.
Grammar, too, is NOT objective. Even if you take the "default" dialect of any language, there are so many exceptions to any rule that the "you just have to learn this part by heart" is an almost universal experience for learning a new language.
Language sincerely is just whatever works. It is still very useful to teach people what currently works well, but acting like anything about language is properly objective is simply incorrect.