He has occasionally corrected a gender assignment in the past, or pointed out if I absent-mindedly use a wrong word. But yesterday was the first real, full-fledged grammar error correction, I believe.
I told him by golly he was right, praised him, and told him that one day his German is going to be better than mine. Then I encouraged him to tell some animals and also his mother.
My correction strategy is underwritten by the philosophy that I am not a language Authority, but rather a mediator and enabler of the language. I assign all my linguistic-authoritarian impulses to various puppets. most notably to Thusnelda, who is a resolute prescriptivist. But then I also undermine such impulses with other views, represented most notably by Friedel.
No comments:
Post a Comment