I thought I’d check out some of the 350+ comments kindly left by @thetimes readers on this article featuring my thoughts on ‘like’ and standard English. They didn’t disappoint, and yet somehow at the same time they disappointed immensely 🧵 1/16
thetimes.com/article/04f637… Predictably, around 95% of the comments disagreed with what I was saying. Alex comes straight to the point, and a lot of people seemed to like his comment 2/16

The predictable early life-cycle of a language-related comment. A short thread.

1. the genuine question, from interested scientist @jimalkhalili. 2. The sensible response from a linguist.

As you may have noticed, I took part in a debate for @GMB this morning, which was then picked up by the Daily Mail. It seems to have ruffled some feathers, leading to some viewers/readers being quite clear (and personal!) as to where I can put my 'woke' views. In response... 1/ ... quite a few people have been in touch publicly and privately to check I'm okay with it all. Thank you very much. But honestly, this doesn't bother me in the slightest. I stand by absolutely everything I said, and I'm more than happy to have helped generate the discussion. 2/

Swearing survey - some results! [A thread].
In March 2020, I launched an online survey looking at the offensiveness of certain words. I've posted a more detailed version of this thread here: swearing.info. The survey was very simple. Participants were shown 11 isolated words, and asked to rate each of them on a scale of offensiveness with the prompt: ‘How offensive do you find each word?’. They used a slider, with a scale of 0-10 to give each word a rating.

Had a quick chat with @TheOfficialJVS on @BBC3CR earlier in relation to reports of @ian_cushing's article about language policing in schools. Argued that this approach does young people a disservice - they are more aware and adept at style-shifting than some give them credit for. Instead, use 'slang' to explore the fluidity of language, and work out with the young people themselves what is and isn't appropriate in any situation, why this might be the case, and whose 'appropriate' it it anyway? Better than pointless and inflexible policing.

Monthly reminder that (in no particular order)...
1. Standard English is no better than other varieties, it just has a history of powerful people behind it.
2. Most grammar ‘rules’ that people get upset about aren’t actually rules at all.
... 3. Texting/messaging isn’t ruining the language.
4. Language is perfectly safe in the hands of young people.
5. Of course we need to teach young people to use standard English. But we can do so without belittling any other varieties they use.
...