![]() To take a recent example, if you asked people 50 years ago what the word "gay" meant, they would say "happy and carefree". Then there can be a period when 50% of the people think a word means X and the other 50% think it means Y. But if you took a poll and discovered that 99% of the people agree that the word "flat" means, I don't know, "made out of wood", then that is what it means, because that is what everyone agrees that it means.Ī problem arises when new words are in the process of being invented, or when the accepted definition of a word is changing. Again, it's not like science or math: If you took a poll and discovered that 99% of the people agree that the Earth is flat, sorry, it's still round. If 99% of the people use a word with a certain definition, it is pretty meaningless to say that that is not a correct definition of the word. I think all serious language students agree that what is actually used by most speakers of the language is an extremely important element. The Chicago Manual of Style, the Modern Language Association Handbook, and Strunk and White's Elements of Style, are all widely respected.Ī key element in the differences of opinion comes down to how you decide what the rules are. The Oxford English Dictionary is highly respected for definitions of words. There are a number of highly respected authorities. Regardless, there is no single recognized authority in English. But even at that, I'm sure their answers would change over time as, for example, new words are added to the language to describe new ideas or new inventions. Maybe other languages have some single recognized authority who declares right and wrong usage, so if in doubt you can check that book or ask that institution and get the official right answer. If person A says that the chemical formula for water is H2O and person B says that it is N2O, person A is right and person B is wrong, period.īut in language, if an American says that a certain word is spelled "color" and a Briton says that it is spelled "colour", there's no experiment we can do to prove that one is right and the other is wrong. If we were debating a scientific question, then, at least in principle, we could perform an experiment and find the right answer. Not to get overly philosophical, but it is the nature of language that there is no universal, eternal, provable right answer. ![]() Out of my frustration, I would like to ask,Īnd, if there is, what are those authoritative sources (or schools of thought)? I searched for it, hard, but I couldn't find it. It would be greatly helpful, if I can find a comprehensive list of authoritative sources for English grammar. But as the learners become more advanced, they would naturally want to reach almost native-like level of proficiency, and soon they will run into those delicate matters that student grammar books are insufficient. Grammar books written for intermediate English language learners are useful. How can those who learn English as a second language know "which" grammar they could rely on? ![]() Otherwise, those problematic questions in ELL and EL&U would always have a definitive answer. These sources seem not to absolutely agree with one another on every matter. ![]() It is likely that there are multiple authoritative sources on English grammar. Having read many posts here (ELL), and some at EL&U, it appears to me that many cases of English grammar (and usage) are debatable.
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