XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.books   
   From: b.scott@csuohio.edu   
      
   On Mon, 26 Aug 2013 07:00:36 +0200, Steve Hayes   
    wrote in   
    in   
   rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.books:   
      
   [...]   
      
   > That misuse of "momentarily" by *airline* staff, of all   
   > people, is the most stupid and irresponsible language   
   > error I have ever heard. The airlines really ought to   
   > train their staff better.   
      
   Ah, a follower of Miss Thistlebottom.  There is perhaps some   
   excuse for that if one is in the business of teaching formal   
   writing, but from a linguistic point of view it’s nonsense.   
      
   Languages change, and usage ultimately determines what is   
   and is not an error.  This sense is sufficiently widespread   
   in U.S. usage that its use in U.S. varieties of English can   
   no longer be considered an error.  Some of us may not use   
   it, just as some of us do not use ‘could care less’ for   
   ‘couldn’t care less’, or retain the full who/whom   
   distinction, or retain the wh/w distinction in   
   pronunciation, or naturally say ‘these data are corrupt’,   
   not ‘this data is corrupt’; that just marks us as   
   conservative -- in some cases very conservative -- speakers.   
   It does not mean that less conservative speakers are somehow   
   wrong -- except, perhaps, by the standards of self-appointed   
   arbiters of linguistic correctness.   
      
   Brian   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)