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Naomi Baron, a linguist at American University, detects worrying trends that relate to what the culture of cellphones, pagers, laptops, and wireless has done to the minds of the young:

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Society’s attitude towards language has changed, she thinks. For about 250 years, the consensus in Western societies has been that grammar, syntax and spelling matter, and that rules have to be observed. That consensus now appears to be at risk.

The consensus that supports syntax itself is at risk! People who like to read this sort of alarmist stuff will find that here they have exactly the sort of alarmist stuff they like to read. But me? I’m a skeptic. I think it’s a load of nonsense.
(link).

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
I suppose that's what I was referring to with my discussion of the similarity between descriptivists and prescriptivists.