Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
That's a different thing entirely. Vernacular dialogue certainly isn't wrong. Quite the opposite, in fact. Having people speak in formal, grammatical English would look artificial and stilted.
|
I'm not disagreeing; I'm pointing out that the Standards Committee Being Proposed would have to grapple with all this.
To put it another way: we don't have universally flawless -- as in, everyone agrees that they're flawless -- grammar/punctuation/spelling in books
now in the traditional publishing industry. Partly because of issues like these. I'm skeptical that an indie standard could evolve, based on all the issues surrounding this.
Or to put another way: in my old English department, there were questions of grammar minutiae that could start
fights between tenured professors. (All in good fun, of course.) Grammar standards are complicated and do vary based on location, vernacular, and the point the author is trying to make.
So basically this "standard" would come down to "Bob thinks this meets a standard that Bob made" (where 'Bob' could be a list of names instead of a singular individual). And while that's all fine and good, it doesn't tell the consumer much unless the standard is so widely accepted (or so carefully documented) that it becomes reflexively known. (Like the Oprah Book Club sticker. That would be an example of wide acceptance. But not of careful documentation, iiuc.)