NO LISTEN, SERIOUSLY GUYS
- What you call “correct grammar” is a social construct which is useful to know specifically because people will equate it with your level of education when you are trying to, say, apply for jobs, or get a book published, or the like. It is otherwise mainly a tool to divide people with a certain level of education from people without.
- What you call “incorrect grammar” is colloquial language, it is the native English learned by that speaker during childhood, and it follows complex rules of its own. NO NATIVE SPEAKER OF ENGLISH SPEAKS BAD OR STUPID ENGLISH. THAT’S NOT HOW LANGUAGE WORKS.
- THEREFORE, when you call people on “incorrect grammar,” the effect is often that of drawing attention to speech patterns that are perceived as signifiers of a person’s social background or education level. It is particularly important to keep this in mind when you are addressing a person’s language when they are in a space where they feel more comfortable or safe, and thus might want to use their native grammar rather than the socially imposed standard.
I’m pretty sure that most of you don’t intentionally do that sort of thing, so you should probably be aware that that’s what you’re doing.
It took me until I was almost 22 to get this concept. Looking back, I can’t believe what a fucking asshole I was.
Beyond that, there should be something listed here about Ableism as well, We don’t know if people are dealing with cognitive or dissonant disorders like Dyslexia or Aphasia and calling people out on grammar effectively erases that group too.
As a Dyslexic person I am totally digging this, but want everyone to know that I understand the value in being able to use a “standard” set of grammar and spelling rules in my writing, so feel free to polity correct me. However if you are a dick about said corrections I will make you feel like shit.
(Source: hereincoherent)
