If you had a coworker who got a new dog. They were excited and told everyone in the office about him.
Couple months later this coworker throws a party. When you get to their house, they excitedly show you the new dog, but when what you see is clearly a cat.
Which are you more likely to think? “What an interesting looking dog.” or “Sir, that is a cat.”
He said it was a dog, and everyone attending was expecting to see a dog. It wasn’t a dog.
How about this scenario:
You have a disagreement with your neighbor about the property line. You mutually agree to settle it with a debate.
Your neighbor spends the entire time talking over you, sidestepping virtually every point you make, blatantly lying, personally insulting you and airing grievances.
You participate in good faith and the moderator decides that the property line should follow your plans.
Did you and your neighbor engage in a debate?
Here is an opinion: Donald Trump is neither classically or emotionally intelligent enough to engage in an actual, by definition, debate.
If I were to define it off the top of my head, I’d say it means a mutually respectful argument.
That being said, your comment rang a bell:
A couple weeks ago I stumbled across descriptive and prescriptive linguistics. I’d mostly forgotten about it, but it’s super relevant here.
The basic idea according to descriptivists is that laguage is living and a words meaning can change based on how it’s being used by native speakers as a whole. Meanwhile prescriptivists insist on rules and grammar.
Or in other words; We’re both right.
I’m using the word debate as it’s typically used to describe a mutually respectful discussion of differing opinions, wheras you’re coming from a more by the books, black and white stance.
I found this video on Youtube that ultimately posits descriptivism works better for speech, perscriptivism works better for writing. I agree, and Social media is a little bit of both.
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Let me try it this way…
If you had a coworker who got a new dog. They were excited and told everyone in the office about him.
Couple months later this coworker throws a party. When you get to their house, they excitedly show you the new dog, but when what you see is clearly a cat.
Which are you more likely to think? “What an interesting looking dog.” or “Sir, that is a cat.”
He said it was a dog, and everyone attending was expecting to see a dog. It wasn’t a dog.
How about this scenario:
You have a disagreement with your neighbor about the property line. You mutually agree to settle it with a debate.
Your neighbor spends the entire time talking over you, sidestepping virtually every point you make, blatantly lying, personally insulting you and airing grievances.
You participate in good faith and the moderator decides that the property line should follow your plans.
Did you and your neighbor engage in a debate?
Here is an opinion: Donald Trump is neither classically or emotionally intelligent enough to engage in an actual, by definition, debate.
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Right. But no boxing took place.
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What does the word debate mean to you?
Edit for clarity: In the context of a formal, moderated event.
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If I were to define it off the top of my head, I’d say it means a mutually respectful argument.
That being said, your comment rang a bell: A couple weeks ago I stumbled across descriptive and prescriptive linguistics. I’d mostly forgotten about it, but it’s super relevant here.
The basic idea according to descriptivists is that laguage is living and a words meaning can change based on how it’s being used by native speakers as a whole. Meanwhile prescriptivists insist on rules and grammar.
Or in other words; We’re both right.
I’m using the word debate as it’s typically used to describe a mutually respectful discussion of differing opinions, wheras you’re coming from a more by the books, black and white stance.
I found this video on Youtube that ultimately posits descriptivism works better for speech, perscriptivism works better for writing. I agree, and Social media is a little bit of both.
It’s an interesting watch at around 7 minutes long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih0UqZ7O7Cg
Merriam-Webster has a decent write up on it too: https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/descriptive-vs-prescriptive-defining-lexicography
It does come off a bit pointed, imo, but I found that most sources unfortunately do.
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