The Horrible Esthete Wrote:You have a point, but it is a sad thing for language to "evolve" through misusage and the deterioration of grammar.
How else would it evolve? The meaning of an existing word can change only by misuse. So "hopefully" no longer means "in a hopeful manner" but "it is to be hoped that," and this is now finding acceptance. That's inevitable, because the meaning of a word can only usefully be defined by how native speakers use it.
As for grammar ... it's worth keeping in mind that many rules of English grammar, such as the prohibition against split infinitives, are derived not from the true roots of English, but from Latin. They're purely ideological, representing an effort to set boundaries (based on education and socioeconomic status, originally).
The notion that there is "correct" grammar, syntax, or spelling treats language as a rigid system. But for most of history, language has not been codified. Dictionaries did not exist in Shakespeare's time; there was no question of whether Malory's grammar was correct.
I spent six years or so as a technical writer, and during that time met quite a few people who suffered from the copyeditor's disease -- the conviction that there is a correct form and that other forms are
wrong. Not just wrong in a given context, but purely and universally wrong. Copyeditor's disease begins when people forget that communication is the aim, and the only reason to make rules is clarity.
Language is going to change. Might as well go down to the beach and yell at the waves to stop crashing, as a wise and now allegedly gay man once said.
Now I'm way off topic, miles away even from "delectative" ... we now return to your scheduled programming....