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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Then there's grammar by meaning and grammar by form. Case in point: Sports team references. Brit grammar prefers the use of plural verbs with team names, e.g., Arsenal win in their annual grudge match v. Little Sisters of the Poor. USns go by the form of the team name, e.g., UConn wins in third attempt at NIT championship; the Huskies were successful at last. On the other hand, USns go by meaning in the following: Buffalo is expecting 6 inches or less of total snowfall this August.
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old hand
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I could never condone the use of bad grammar just because its use doesn't affect the meaning. - Rhubarb Well then Mr. Rhuby, you must be referring to the important, but auxiliary, transfer of information that is conveyed by writing or speech that identifies the speaker as belonging to a certain social class, like that snooty, elite, but necessary, group that either condones, or they don't. 
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veteran
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veteran
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What several other of our experts are going around, Verlangen [Herzlich thut mich verlangen?] is the concept that an expression which has a plural construction can actually be a singular. 'Wages" in this context is such a construction and is perfectly good grammar, since the singular subject (even though it has a plural form) goes with the singular verb.
Here's another instance:
"When you awaken, what you first see on the beside table is a glass of water, a napkin and a spoon." You might think that the enumeration of 3 items is inconsistent with the singular 'is', but no. In this instance, the items enumerated constitute a collection, or a scene, which is the subject of the verb and is treated as singular.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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writing or speech that identifies the speaker as belonging to a certain social class,
I have never considered that grammar is essentially a matter of class. (Although I am very aware that there can be a high degree of snobbishness attached to it by the "snooty, elite but necessary" sort of person)
Grammar has much more, I would submit, to do with clarity an lack of ambiguity than anything else. It's all very good and proper to say, "We don' wan' no steenkin' rules," and my anarchist background and beliefs supports me in that view of unnecessary rules. But to dispense with rules altogether leads, not to anarchy but to chaos.
(as an aside, it is interesting to note that the longest list of house rules I've ever encountered were hung on the back door of an anarchist community in Yorkshire.)
The grammar that we have grown up with was certainly imposed by the top few percent of society, for the good reasons that they were the ones with education, and the ones to whom clarity and unambiguity were most important (for the business of governing and control, etc.) Other communities developed their own set of customs and rules which, though different, were just as strictly observed.
Now that the bulk of the societies that we on this board live in are educated (at least to a point) grammar is no longer being dictated from the top and there have been all sorts of subtle (and not-so-subtle) changes, many of which I have seen deplored on this board.
The point I'm making is, that whilst it is perfectly true that, in the past, grammar has been the property of the elite, it is now incresingly in the hands of everyone and is being led by pop-stars, sports "personalities", TV presenters, all aided by the media. But it is still grammar, and to be not only understood but thought to be a good commuinicator, you have to keep up with whatever the current rules are.
Those who stand back from this dynamism, throwing up there hands in horror and complaining about "the debasement of the language" are being "snooty and elite", but they are *not the ones who are setting the grammar rules. (and probably aren't very necessary!)
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(as an aside, it is interesting to note that the longest list of house rules I've ever encountered were hung on the back door of an anarchist community in Yorkshire.)- - And I, Commando, agree with every swinging word you said in your last post, and I am proud if my slight dig at "the keepers of the keys", in anyway encouraged your response. Well said... Sir!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Has sjm brought a new bit of AWAD-lingo to the fore with ["faldagery"]?
Or have I just not been paying close enough attention?
I've always understood your wage is your remuneration and your wages are the pile of bills with which you are renumerated. Something about "compound" sticks in a dusty corner of my mind.
Anyway wages of sin is ...is so firmly entrenched I doubt our pronunciamentos (see today's wwftd) will have much effect.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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if my slight dig at "the keepers of the keys", in anyway encouraged your response.
Rather more than encouraged, milum: I had never really worked out what I thought until your prompt. So, you have done me great service in inciting me to think clearly about a relatively important matter. Many thanks to you - Sir!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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(as an aside, it is interesting to note that the longest list of house rules I've ever encountered were hung on the back door of an anarchist community in Yorkshire.) Was they? 
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old hand
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old hand
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(as an aside, it is interesting to note that the longest list of house rules I've ever encountered were hung on the back door of an anarchist community in Yorkshire.)
Was they?
*Rimshot*®, methinks.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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