but maybe there are some gates are meant to be kept. language evolves, sure, but I literally can't use literally to mean literally anymore because it's sloppily become to also mean figuratively. in this day and age, bureaucracy doesn't have to be glacially slow, and new words could be proposed and officially adopted, if (wait hang on there couldn't possibly be a problem with my plan) people would follow the rules set down by a committee.
Thing is, we have such committees for English, and they say Internet should not be capitalized and I say it should, just like Earth or Sun, there's only one.
The thing about language is it’s basically the world’s most pure democracy. Communities, cultures, ect… each decide for themselves how they’re going to use it. Individuals or organisations can attempt to establish themselves as an authority on how it should be used, by forming committees or writing dictionaries, but the only people who care what they have to say are their own respective community of aligned interests. Everybody else ignores them. I would say if you want your dictionary to be actually useful, then it should attempt describe the way words are actually used, rather than attempt to dictate their permissible use.
I think English is a language that lends itself to this rigid approach a bit more than some other languages, because of how common it is for English as a first language speakers to only speak English. Where I live there are a lot more languages, basically everybody is multilingual, and the level of slang, language mixing and other general bastardisation would probably make a lot of English speakers cringe…
'The "in effect; virtually" meaning of literally is not new. It has been in regular use since the 18th century and may be found in the writings of some of the most highly regarded writers of the 19th and early 20th centuries, including Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Charlotte Brontë, and James Joyce.'
Thing is, we have such committees for English, and they say Internet should not be capitalized and I say it should, just like Earth or Sun, there's only one.