Ok, that was long but your last sentence says it all. The OP seems to be arguing that there IS NO SUCH THING as stunted linguistic and communicative abilities.
Maybe I’m just old but I find it difficult sometimes to understand people who prefer to use words seemingly at random and pay no attention to any rules I’ve learned. I like to think I have a pretty good grasp of American English but when I’m not certain about something and I try to look up the proper way to phrase it, I find five different answers from five different sources all quoting, I guess, from the accepted grammar of the time in which they were taught. I used to just go to my old English text book, but now it just seems it of date. If you don’t want to just slang your way through life it’s difficult to follow the rules when they’re don’t seem to be any.
OP is arguing that there are many ways of communicating in a language, including slang and various registers and dialects, and just because you and I don’t understand all of them that’s OK. They’re still valid communication and not the same as stunted linguistic or communicative ability as the ability to communicate between people familiar with the slang or dialect is not stunted at all.
Ok, that was long but your last sentence says it all. The OP seems to be arguing that there IS NO SUCH THING as stunted linguistic and communicative abilities.
Maybe I’m just old but I find it difficult sometimes to understand people who prefer to use words seemingly at random and pay no attention to any rules I’ve learned. I like to think I have a pretty good grasp of American English but when I’m not certain about something and I try to look up the proper way to phrase it, I find five different answers from five different sources all quoting, I guess, from the accepted grammar of the time in which they were taught. I used to just go to my old English text book, but now it just seems it of date. If you don’t want to just slang your way through life it’s difficult to follow the rules when they’re don’t seem to be any.
No, OP isn’t arguing that.
OP is arguing that there are many ways of communicating in a language, including slang and various registers and dialects, and just because you and I don’t understand all of them that’s OK. They’re still valid communication and not the same as stunted linguistic or communicative ability as the ability to communicate between people familiar with the slang or dialect is not stunted at all.