Proper English,AP style and common language

So my husband and I were arguing about grammar and I thought it was an interesting topic.

He claims that the rules of grammar are generally arbitrary and useless and I feel that they are necessary for the sake of clarity.

Having said that, there does seem to be a bit of conflict between the way English teachers expect us to write, the way newspapers and magazines are written and the way the English language is used by the general public.

The conversation started when I forgot to capitalize the word Internet in my introduction post. I don’t understand why the word Internet is considered a proper noun.

According to Grammar Girl the Internet is considered one big happy place and that is why it is a proper noun (Side Note: Kudos to Mignon Fogarty for the Schoolhouse Rock reference!). Apparently this is also true for “the Net” and “the Web” but it all seems entirely counterintuitive. It also seems contradictory to how the words are commonly used.

Another contradiction comes from the AP stylebook which insists that Web site is two words and that Web must be capitalized but the same rules do not apply to webmaster, webpage, webcam, or webcast. How exactly does that make sense?

I realize, as I said before, that the rules of grammar and style are intended to add clarity and readability and that they are necessary. I just find it incredibly interesting how common use, slang, and (more recently) texting jargon continue to drive the evolution of the language. I don’t think this is an indication that the rules are arbitrary, I just think that some flexibility is needed.

I’m sure there are a few purists out there who might disagree. For example, I know some people were upset with Merriam-Webster’s decision to include a definition for the word ain’t and there was some controversy when they added google to the dictionary as a verb used to describe the process of using the Google search engine.

Each year new words are added, new rules are created and old rules are discarded. I have no idea who makes the decisions or how they decide, but I find the whole thing completely fascinating. Maybe next year they’ll add “LOL” as a legitimate word- then I won’t feel so silly for saying it out loud.