"who's" is "who is"[1] or "who has"[2], and it can be wrestled into a possessive if you make "who" all or part of a name[3], but it's the wrong sort of possessive for this context. If you really want the possessive form, it ought to be phrased "which person's", which is mostly what "whose" means.

(An actual linguist would speak more about the genitive and how it works in English, but I'm not as capable.)

[1]: e.g. "Who's there?" [2]: e.g. "Who's let the cat out again?" [3]: e.g. "This is you-know-who's box of tricks."

[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone -1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Noun

prescriptivism

(linguistics) The practice of prescribing idealistic norms, as opposed to describing realistic forms, of linguistic usage.

E.g.

Most linguists in this age believe that prescriptivism is outmoded and should no longer be used
Most linguists in this age believe that descriptivism is a more accurate model of language than prescriptivism
Most linguists in this age believe that "correcting" language unnecessarily is actively harmful, as it stifles the evolution of a living growing thing, which prescriptivism fails to accurately model
Most linguists in this age agree the more important factor is CONTEXT, that you should use the correct language style for the context, whereas prescriptivism falls flat as it ignores context. Contextual Language is the idea that you use a different style of language talking to your boss then you do to your friend, then you do to your best friend, than you do to a stranger

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I envy these linguists' ability to either not be irked by grammar errors at all or to be able to deal with their irritation when errors arise.

[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They actually are the reverse of irked, cause like an archaeologist finding a new artefact, they find the cool thing of evidence of the shift of language.

Not errors, evidence of change

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What's your opinion of the word "neologologist" and are you proposing that these "most linguists" are in fact described by it? And what do you think their opinion of it would be? ;p

[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 day ago

I would say that most aren't, but some definitely are

It's a study of both the past and the present, many study both, many study just one, some flip-flop between

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I also envy their ability to understand what was meant, because sometimes there are enough errors to make meaning completely impossible to discern

[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

There's this thing in linguistics, casual language requires backchanneling - to respond back with either short utterances that show you understand, or to show confusion and then ask for clarity

The reason formal language is formalised, as in the shit used in essays, is that there is no easy way to say "what did you mean?" - the feedback loop is far too slow for that process and by the point the author(s) get to respond they likely forget what they meant as well

[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Well, that was an entirely unnecessary and lengthy correction to a mistake that was A) a typo I didn't notice from using swipe on my phone keyboard, not a misunderstanding on grammar, and B) not an error that rendered my comment confusing or indecipherable requiring your clarification. But thank you for your (air quotes) help. I really hope that you're a bot, not a person this annoying or one who writes that way.

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm about 50/50 on grammar errors. They bother me either way, but sometimes I feel the need to correct them and try to explain why.

Today I seem to have worded it in a way that's rubbed people the wrong way. It has gone better. You win some, you lose some.

And yes I know I sound like an LLM. I used to not be able to communicate my ideas at all (flashback to not being able to string a 500 word essay together at school) but then I got a job working technical support and I had to figure out a way of getting my ideas and explanations across. And this is now how I communicate, for better or worse.

Unfortunately, LLMs learned how to communicate in a not dissimilar way. And so we sound alike.

[–] Hawke@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I like the way you write, FWIW.