Language Nerds

This is a book review for "Far From the Madding Gerund." It is written by "descriptivists - those who would describe how language is actually used." A sample:

If a sentence strikes the vast majority of speakers of a language as well-formed, it is well-formed. This doesn't rule out variation, say, by dialect or region. "The team is in trouble" is grammatical in standard American English. "The team are in trouble" is grammatical in Britain. And linguists would say, "The team in trouble" is grammatical in African-American English—it is perfectly comprehensible and, crucially, native speakers of the dialect will not bat an eye at it. But "The team am in trouble," even if comprehensible, is grammatical nowhere. Such a sentence could only be the product of a mistake or a joke. Descriptivists draw their rules from native speakers, but that doesn't mean anything goes.

I like the nerdy grammar books, but there are some rules that simply need not be followed, if we take it as a given the point of language is communication.

Interesting: apparently E.B. White, author of "Elements of Style," uses "which" in a restrictive clause in the second paragraph of "Stuart Little."