# Does descriptive linguistics mean "anything goes"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-descriptive-linguistics-mean-anything-goes/971005>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 5, 2022, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-descriptive-linguistics-mean-anything-goes/971005 "2022-09-05T17:29:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 308

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**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2022, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-descriptive-linguistics-mean-anything-goes/971005/308 "2022-09-25T23:08:39Z")

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> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Alot is in the process of being accepted. …

[How about “queuing”?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-british-association-with-queuing/972211/9)

😄

(Sorry. Couldn’t resist.)

To the experts here - is there study of how different forms of usage compete?

My first WAG was to think of the memetics analogy to genetics but on further thought I’m more suspicious that there are different dynamics at play with tipping points where a variation goes from being considered incorrect (or acceptable in very casual circumstance or non-standard dialect) to “correct in most circumstances”. Or is there no consistent pattern to change?

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