Immitation is a Must.

Jackie Hand
Blog 2
English 101
In Pinker’s writing, he says that it is okay for people to talk the way that they please, and that grammar may not be that important. I believe that he is in fact contradicting himself. If standard English is really not important, then why would he write in it? This is the universal language that you can connect with everyone on. If Pinker had not written in standard English, would anyone have taken what he said seriously in the first place? Most likely not.
I agree with Dalrymple all the way. Yes, everyone has their own way of speaking and communicating, but when one needs to get their point across to multiple people, it is better to use a universal language so that others can understand. There is a time and place for everything, which means that if you want to be taken seriously you must conform somewhat to the “universal” way of grammar.
Pinker said that the reason a child speaks the way they do is because of biology as opposed to imitation. There is no possible way that this is correct. Children who are not communicated with cannot speak and will have a difficult time learning how. So if it was biological, could they really lose that trait? I don’t believe so. So many things that we do as human beings are caused by imitation. Without imitation, no one would be able to connect each other. There would be no fashion, no dance, no theater, no entertainment, no form of anything. Everyone imitates something or someone at some point in their lives. It is how we as humans can stay in touch with each other.