<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[The Dish]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://dish.andrewsullivan.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Andrew Sullivan]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://dish.andrewsullivan.com/author/sullydish/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Liberating The English&nbsp;Language]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><em>by Matthew Sitman</em></span></p>
<p>On June 30, the Queen&#39;s English Society, &quot;committed to protecting the language from declining standards,&quot; came to an end. VR Narayanswami <a href="http://www.livemint.com/2012/07/30210221/English-and-the-language-polic.html" target="_self">applauds</a>&#0160;the demise of the language police:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What detractors of prescriptivism object to is the attempt by  individuals to impose artificial and arbitrary rules on usage. A rule  should be seen as a codification of existing practice. Grammarians point  out that prescriptivists create such controversies by trying to fit  English structure on to a Procrustean bed of Latin grammar. The history  of English shows that language changes under the influence of good  writers and speakers, not of academies of the French model.</p>
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