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The descriptivist's dilemma
(discuss.tchncs.de)
spoiler
alt text: A two panel comic. In the first panel there are two buttons labeled "I don't believe in prescriptivism" and "'Literally' cannot mean 'figuratively'". A finger hovers between the buttons. In the second panel, the finger's owner is sweating and wiping his brow, unable to decide.
First, Joyce’s work varies across all of his writing, and second, you can’t pick the one author out of a list and use that to dismiss the argument. It’s basically the same as dismissing the singular “they.” It has a historical basis, and the entire meme is about descriptivism, which is based in how language is used rather than prescribing how it should be used.
yeah but I'm saying Joyce just does what he wants and im just kidding around
like take Ulysses chapter 9 (Scylla and Charybdis), lns 697–707
My joke was "was this the guy you want to use as a good example of descriptivism?!"