burkphoto wrote:
Well, as Noam Chomsky has said, we know what the other person means. In the end, that IS what counts.
But if we're being formal and writing consistently for posterity and understanding by the broadest audience, there are standards to be maintained. W cn tk th vwls t f sntnce nd stll ndrstnd t. (We can take the vowels out of a sentence and still understand it.) But it takes our brains a while to process it. Who wants to waste time translating and risk confusion?
All you have to do to see the importance of consistency is read literature written hundreds of years ago. Chances are, there are nearly as many footnotes in a modern printing of those old books as there are original author's words. Those footnotes explain the spellings, the idioms, the cultural context, the structural inconsistencies, and the subtextual references that would otherwise be lost in the past.
Well, as Noam Chomsky has said, we know what the o... (
show quote)
There will never bs consistency over long periods of time...someone always has a "better" idea