Political Memes

OMFG dude, I know how words are added to the dictionary. I was a English Lit major and a writing tutor. I understand that lexicongraphers believe that their job is simply recording uses, and not creating meanings.

Well, sorry for explaining something you already knew. Legitimately my only point I was trying to argue was one I guess you already understood. Uptil this point I wasn’t positive you understood that simple concept. I say this because you appeared to tout certain definitions as incorrect, not because they were in a dictionary but because they weren’t in one particular dictionary. I thought that was super strange because dictionaries don’t drive language and dictionaries aren’t hierarchal in nature - it’s not like the gram or some other standard.

I also know that there's an inherent contradiction in that, since they are also creating a repository that others will use to find the meaning of words, so they're creating and influencing that meaning for everyone who uses that repository.

I guess I disagree on the inflencing bit, except for folks who go around the internet saying it’s “incorrect” to use language in a way that the the public uses it. It was incorrect, it’s now correct, and I wouldn’t say that’s the dictionary’s doing but the people’s doing. I imagine many lexicongraphers had a difficult time resigning to the fact that the needed to update the defintion of “literally”.

But that’s something I guess you may not have gotten from this conversation - I don’t really care about the correctness of the words. if u cn undrstnd me tht gud enuf. I mean, I promise not to write like that often but I also really don’t care to define “what is correct” outside of “how the public uses it”.

Again, the first thing you said to me was that it was OK to use, "literally," as, "figuratively," because it's in the dictionary. You yourself allowed the dictionary authors to change your usage of that word.

• I didn’t start using the word “literally” just because the dictionary said it was OK. I don’t really care what the dictionary says so long as I can get my points across to other humans comprende? I’ve literally been listening to my peers and finding out that when they “literally died” they were probably being hyperbolic as they were still speaking to me. I guess it would make sense that I could pushback on that but given that I learned the word as a flexibile definition, I never saw a problem with it. I mean, logically there’s an issue (literally hard to determined what actually happened, unless of course we talk about what actually happened - until actually is changed to mean “maybe didn’t” of course).
• I’m fine with dictionary authors changing the definitions of words, since that’s what they do when language changes.

I never said slang terms shouldn't be in the dictionary, just that every slang usage doesn't have to be recorded in every dictionary.

And it’s not, no cap. fr. it’s redonkulously incomplete with wicked vernacular, brah.

Sorry Oxford didn't have your use of, "Pop," in it, but it's actually kind of understandable that a British dictionary didn't bother to add the Midwestern-American slang for a word that already had 21 entries.

I don’t really care, but it sounded like you were touting the Oxford dictionary as correct where the merriam webster dictionary was incorrect. That was my issue really. It sounded like a weird elitism that I at least wanted to understand, if not explain the insignificance of.

But yeah, if you grasp that concept, there’s nothing for me to argue.