The Theory of Evolution... Linguistically Speaking. From egregious to pretty, naughty to nice, and meat to passenger, the English language has always been changing and evolving, such as clay does when in the hands of a sculptor. As Orwell states in his essay, our language--so the argument runs--must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes. (1)
To elaborate on this quote, it can easily be said that we have modified not only English. but also every other tongue spoken on this planet Earth; words have changed, evolved and been created over the years, and there is little for it save to let events assume their own course. Nowhere is this change more evident than in the word 'irregardless'. Stemming from the words 'regardless' and 'irrespective', this new nonstandard word carries the same definition as it's parent word 'regardless'. The word is considered nonstandard because of it's use of the double negatives -ir and -less which technically render it positive, though it is never used in this way.
Westlake 2
Our language has grown like a child over the years, maturing and developing and learning, as if it were an
