Perhaps this belongs in the You Ungrateful Bastards category. When I am searching for something on my own blog, it uncovers other things I wrote that I still like.
Language Myths December 2013
Shall Vs. Will June 2008
The Bearded Pig and His Rights March 2016 Not about language, though. I just liked it.
Pedantic Language Lesson January 2007
Language Change June 2013
Language Change June 2008
3 comments:
I came across the shall/will issue as a difference between UK and US usage when doing some research this morning, after reading a parent's recitation of a conversation with their 5-year old. The kids had done pre-school & kindergarten in the UK, and when I was there I was often tripped up by common verbs that in UK English have lost their irregular conjugation of past-tense forms. So "catched" instead of "caught" presumably could be grammatically correct in UK English, as a whole or perhaps in a particular region. I'm fairly certain having looked into it that it is not in common usage, however. The US use of "will" where "shall" might be the more common UK usage was noted, however I'm not really sure after reading your reprise if evidence supports that.
On myths and double negatives, I noted elsewhere that someone commented upon reading the AI-generated text "They believe that anyone who is unprotesting of their cause is a threat to their cause and a threat to their own existence." that the assembly "unprotesting of" could be particularly useful for those politicians (in politics and otherwise) who wish to flummox their listeners.
https://www.samizdata.net/2020/04/it-lets-us-pretend-that-it-is-us-talking/#comment-797691
Shall vs will is actually quite complicated, and has changed over the years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shall_and_will
I shall look into that. Whether or not I will learn anything is unknown.
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