Garner's "Making Peace in the Language Wars"

Making Peace in the Language Wars -  by Bryan A. Garner 

This essay is part of the book „Garners modern American usage“ which was published in 1998 . Since first appearing, the book established itself as the preeminent group to the effective use of English language.  As the title already hints, there seems to be a war within the language or the use of language. Garner describes two „camps“ which are in a sort of a war. On the one side there are the describers who „seek to discover the facts of how native speaker actually use their language“ and on the other side there are the prescribers who „seek to guide users of a language“. Each side thinks their views are the corret and the only way to use or view language. 

While reading this article I tried to figure out to which „camp“ I belong and I have to admit that it was pretty difficult to say „well to be prescriptive has its advantages“ or „looking at language as it is used could help me in my use (usage?) of language“. For me language should  be ones individual decision as Trudgill also describes. Language is a „self-regulating system which can be left to take care of themselves“. So neither prescribers nor describers are needed to take care of language. Language is going to keep changing anyway, so why is it so important to make language users feel uncomfortable by telling them how to use correct English or correcting them afterwards? Learning a language is often linked with emotions. If there is a will to learn „    correct“ English or at least English, I think one shouldn‘t be bothered with prescribers or describers who actually would criticise the use of that language. Of course corretness (eg. use of grammar ) to some extend should be respected but if we would go by what some critics say, this would be an endless cleavage of how to use language intentionally and, in their views, how it should be actually used. 

So „don‘t be afraid to exercise your power of choice“ as Pei states and choose how you want to speak and write before language is being labeled discriminatory.