Letter to the Editor: Dastardly prescriptionists!
BY Lloyd L. Wallisch II, Tulsa
Wednesday, December 05, 2012
12/05/12 at 3:04 AM
In his letter ("More Who, Whom," Dec. 1), Bob McQuitty composts his disdain for "prescriptionist" grammar teachers who continue to impart the correct usage of "who" and "whom." He claims that the latter is "appropriate and correct only for the most formal writing." O dastardly Prescriptionists, daring to corrupt young minds with the sets of norms by which languages are employed to communicate clearly and commonly, rather than deployed to confuse and divide, to the detriment of all.
Why draw the line in the sand at grammar? No logical impediment prohibits the extension of the McQuitty Principle to spelling and word definition. By McQuitty's lights, were one to refer to him as a "pompous ignoramus," he would doubtless be pleased were one's personal definition of that phrase to be "unsung genius." (Oh, dear: Is the subjunctive now outlawed?)
Many ones must do bein' pleased that McQuitty are and do beed retired as a professor "Englishs," since can him no longer are polluting minds that is yung.
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