Language changes; it grows and adapts similarly to the way humans grow and adapt to the dynamic world around us. From Old English with epics like Beowulf to the Middle English of the Canterbury Tales, we moved to Shakespearean, or Early Modern English, which eventually manifested itself in the incredibly complex language we refer to as Modern English. The journey the English took many centuries ago in expanding their territory to America emerged through "borrowing" pieces of assorted languages, including, but not limited to, Latin, French, German, Native American, Celtic, and Greek . Cultural integration has caused and will continue to cause the gradual expansion of the English language into its linguistic repertoire, so it is interesting that an extraordinarily intelligent professor and writer like David Foster Wallace, in his essay Authority and American Usage, can lay claim to prescriptivism. : The belief that writing using traditional grammar and correct usage of English is unanimously superior to the way modern Americans use it. While this approach makes it sound literate, isn't language an expression of human personality? Personality: like language, it changes over time; for starters, you're not the same elementary school kid you once were. Judith Butler, author of Beyond Oneself, reveals her liberal stance on the "prescriptivism versus descriptivism" linguistic debate which is revealed in her unique and long-winded sentence. The English language does not have an official language academy, but there are a huge number of English speakers around the world. Without this central authority, the realm of the English language is basically a free-for-all (i.e. inconsistent dictionaries), so it is impractical to say that the... center of the paper... is changing, it is natural to associate the language with the same changes . By looking beyond the restrictive lens of prescriptivism, we can reevaluate our views on language. In doing so, we can reveal how we are weighed down by thoughts of what is considered “traditional” instead of embracing changes and using language to our advantage. I found it evident that Judith Butler was on the side of descriptivism, which adapts to the changes the world inflicts on language, while David Foster Wallace creates an unnecessary conflict by pushing his prescriptivist beliefs on his readers. However, this means that I move away from wanting what is conventionally correct. The bottom line is that language, along with technology, economics and culture, is constantly changing and we can choose to complain about it or embrace the change..