"Norma Loquendi" is a
Latin phrase meaning approximately "The
standards of
grammar,
etc. as established by a
language's speakers' actual
custom." Some people
overtly or
covertly determine Norma Loquendi based on customary language habits
only within a certain circle of speakers. This is, for example, the feeling I got from
William Safire in his book
In Love with Norma Loquendi. By "speaker" I do not mean to imply that Norma does not take customary written use of language into account. (In any case, in our
AOL age, there is a whole new category of written language --
Internet speech -- that lies very close,
usage-wise, to spoken language.)
Norma is a more
fun way of looking at
descriptive grammar, the opposite of
prescriptive grammar. Let me repeat here:
whose grammar Norma Loquendi describes depends on who is describing her.
Norma likes you. I like Norma (I'm a
pedant, but I like descriptive grammar).
Not everyone likes Norma.
Chris Trejbal, columnist for the
Minnesota Daily Online, once wrote the following of descriptive grammarians:
"These are the same wishy-washy types that turn out to be cultural relativists, physical anti-realists and Neo- Postmodern- Deconstructive- Gender-Studies majors, incapable of taking a firm stand on any issue."
Back in the free-wheeling,
PC 1820s, wishy-washy cultural relativist Postmodernist
Alexander Campbell wrote in the preface to the fourth edition of his
The Living Oracles: "Since the days of Horace it is admitted, by all grammarians, that common usage is the sovereign arbiter of language: Usus, quem penes arbitrium est, el jus, et norma loquendi." But then, he was a
religious reformer.
My firm stand is that over time, Norma knows what she's doing, though it takes a few years to confirm that a new language custom is not just a
whim. Also, some of her habits defy
logic or lead towards
ambiguity -- in these cases it's necessary to disagree with her.
Norma is the daughter of
Horace, who spoke in
Ars Poetica of "us et norma loquendi." (Various sources also spell this "us" as "ius" and "jus".)
Sources:
Book -- William Safire's
In Love with Norma Loquendi
Web Page -- http://patriot.net/~lillard/cp/hor.arspoet.html
Web Page -- www-pp.hogia.net/alexander.backlund/horatius.html
Web Page -- www.mndaily.com/daily/1998/03/10/editorial_opinions/oo0310/
Web Page -- http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/oracles4th/pre4th.html