Debating with self-appointed language experts

I stumbled upon this intelligencesquared debate while searching for a video featuring Steven Pinker. Unfortunately, the good guys did a rather poor job of refuting the ‘arguments’ mounted by the prescriptivist debate team. Oliver Kamm, who writes a language column for The Times, and who recently published sort of a usage guide of his own, has all the right ideas about what is at the heart of the matter, but fails to do what is required, namely to look at the actual claims made by language pedants. Here are a couple of good examples from Language Log aimed specifically at concrete claims made by Simon Heffer, who also takes part in the debate: 2010 and one more from 2010. Heffer also has a recent book out (2014). The Google Book preview provides a good idea of the kind of recycled 19th century pedantry that he is peddling.