The never-ending battle between advocates of the prescriptive and descriptive schools of language was touched off in the last few weeks, starting with a May 14 article in The New Yorker titled “The English Wars”, written by the magazine’s dance critic Joan Acocella. Weighing in with Acocella on the side of the prescriptive approach was lecturer Ryan Bloom,  English, who in a May 29 blog post on The New Yorker‘s website noted one contradiction in particular on the part of many descriptivists: “When it comes time for them to write their books and articles and give their speeches about the …