I'm not sure that it's safe to judge why a person feels compelled to correct other people's grammar. There are so many possible reasons. Or, perhaps we might judge but there's no way to know if the judgement is correct unless one knows the person very well.
And sometimes correction is a very good thing. Correct grammar can make a huge difference to meaning.
Many mistakes don't matter because they've become a part of colloquial speech. We understand what is intended.
Then there are times when something is expressed so poorly that not a single Mugger can decipher the meaning. One can read beneath and every response says something like, "what's the question?"
Observe the differences of meaning... A woman without her man is nothing. A woman: without her, man is nothing. or My husband tells me he's going to see Maria and he and Maria had a great time together. (As his wife, I am likely to have a vested interest in whether this visit to Maria happened in the past or is yet to happen.)
Use of language can have a strong effect on how well we communicate with one another.
Personally, I've always like Eduard De Bono's motto "From Good Idea to Better Idea". The way he explains it goes roughly, "wherever we're at right now is probably good enough for muddling along in a satisfactory manner, but there's never any facet of life in which it's not possible to improve."
For me, when someone corrects my language, facts or logic, I'm always grateful.
As a person who has to fight the urge to correct grammar, I sympathize with those who cannot control it. It's neither trying to be helpful nor trying to act superior, it's more like people who see a picture hanging crookedly on the wall and need to straighten it.
I used to do that in high school. When I saw that it was an exercise in egomania, I quit it. It is not mine to correct and someone's picture is not mine to straighten. It is a matter of decorum or boorishness to me.
Maybe. Depends on the kind of correction. If an American tries to impose American punctuation on the already correct punctuation of British, South African or Australian writers (or vice versa), that would be cultural colonialism. It actually does happen in universities and publishing houses.
Otherwise, no.
Grammar has been set long ago. It has a specific purpose which is to ensure clarity of meaning via the order and sequence of words according to the rules of the language. It's about communicating clearly.
Imposing a language on a people is colonialism because it's a means of both control and the destruction of their original language, often including the culture, beliefs and laws that go with it, because in most cultures these factors are interdependent.
Imposing a grammar is merely the structure of a language, not the language itself. If someone already has the language but merely uses it in unclear ways, correcting the errors helps but does no harm (except perhaps temporarily to egos.)
This post was edited by inky at April 17, 2019 7:54 AM MDT
Have no idea what that means. Seems to me it would not be "colonialism" unless there is an attempt to establish a colony. I just find it annoying. Using one's area of expertise to find fault with others. Which seems rather gratuitous. Because no way can someone master all areas of expertise in order to avoid or parry such criticism. The purpose of grammar, or so it seems to me, is to express things clearly to the greatest number of people. Which I guess many people don't even care about as long as their friends get it. So much that is posted on here makes no sense to me at all - but for me usually not a matter of grammar but use of expressions and colloquialisms which are foreign to me because of my age or background. I am able to understand most people who do not use correct grammar so that doesn't bother me. perhaps some people are very bothered by that. And I have noticed that some who do point out such errors I have found to be wrong or have disagreed with some of what they believe constitutes "proper" grammar. Some things are more clearly expressed outside of proper grammar. And anyway language is always changing form and function. So many of what have been hard and fast "rules" have now gone out the window as far as usage is concerned.
I'll take your boneless colonialism and raise you a pugilistic out-of-control obsession to irritate. Combine the two and you got yourself a grammar Nazi.
This post was edited by WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH at April 16, 2019 1:12 AM MDT
Just Asking 