There are three stages in scientific discovery. First, people deny that it is true, then they deny that it is important; finally they credit the wrong person.
Bill BrysonRead
Language is more fashion than science, and matters of usage, spelling and pronunciation tend to wander around like hemlines.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Language evolves over time and is influenced by trends rather than strict scientific rules.
This quote by Bill Bryson suggests that language is not a rigid system but rather a fluid and evolving entity, subject to change like fashion trends. Just as hemlines in clothing rise and fall with changing styles, the way we use language, including spelling and pronunciation, also shifts over time due to cultural influences and societal changes.
Themes
LanguageEvolutionFashionUsageTrends
In practice
Example use cases
A linguistics professor could use this quote to initiate a discussion on language change in their class.
More from Bill Bryson
All quotes βFor most of us the rules of English grammar are at best a dimly remembered thing. But even for those who make the rules, grammatical correctitude sometimes proves easier to urge than to achieve. Among the errors cited in this book are a number committed by some of the leading authorities of this century. If men such as Fowler and Bernstein and Quirk and Howard cannot always get their English right, is it reasonable to expect the rest of us to?
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I became quietly seized with that nostalgia that overcomes you when you have reached the middle of your life and your father has recently died and it dawns on you that when he went he took some of you with him.
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Open your refrigerator door, and you summon forth more light than the total amount enjoyed by most households in the 18th century. The world at night, for much of history, was a very dark place indeed.
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The universe is not only queerer than we suppose; it is queerer than we can suppose
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Those who sniff decay in every shift of sense or alteration of usage do the language no service. Too often for such people the notion of good English has less to do with expressing ideas clearly than with making words conform to some arbitrary pattern.
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