222466174 © The Public Record Office Northern Ireland | Dreamstime.com
Photograph of a Schoolroom, Teachers and Children, c.1902 – from Belfast Society for Providing Nurses for the Sick Poor Papers PRONI Ref: D1630/39
Rules change. Language moves.
While language has become more fixed since reading and writing has become widespread, and even more stable with the advent of dictionary availability, it still adjusts to the needs of the time. New words come into being – computer being first applied to the human occupation of computing and then to machines which computed. Other words pass out of need – the occupation of lamp lighter, activating the gas street lamps. Slang becomes words and words become slang.
Arika Okrent put together “11 grammar rules that changed since you were in school” for considerable on July 9, 2020.
#3 – Split infinitives is the one I run into the most when editing, but all of the list presented have their place in the tides of language transition.
Again the post is: https://www.considerable.com/life/language/grammar-rules-that-changed-since-you-were-in-school