The Logic Off Topic list

>When it *comes* to lyrics, fuck the grammar for sure, go with
>what sounds good. I think you made the right choice unless you
>want to sound like English students who are writing songs. English 
>grammar is whack anyway if you ask me. i never could
>make any sense out of it. It's old and tired and needs a
>makeover. Ebonics make much more sense as a method of
>communication than straight University white people Engish.


Actually I don't agree with any of that except the part where you say 
that if it is for lyrics he should not sweat the point.  Anyway 
having taught English to non-native speakers for about 18 years has 
given me a lot of opportunities to appreciate the power of the 
language to convey meanings in subtle and elegant ways.  That is of 
course assuming that everyone understands the rules.

Slashing it apart and applying a bunch of funky contractions may be a 
lot of fun and that is reason enough to do it but it certainly will 
not improve the capability of the language to convey meaning.  All it 
really does is help to place the speaker/writer into whatever group 
it is that he wants to represent himself as being affiliated with. 
As for it needing a make over, yes and no.  No it does need one 
because it just got one yesterday and will get another one today and 
another one tomorrow so yes it needs one so it is always getting one.

What it does not need is to be divided in a radical way into new and 
old and have "new" be dumbed down so as to make it difficult for 
young people only familiar with the new to benefit from the enormous 
body of wisdom the old version has to offer.  It also is a serious 
tool for about 2 or 3 billion people to who speak it as a second 
language to communicate not only with native speakers but also with 
other non English speakers so drastically altering it can end up 
screwing with peoples ability to talk things out rather than shoot 
things out.  No matter what a deeper understanding of grammar and the 
logic behind it is never a bad thing and can actually be quite 
enjoyable.