Advice on social manners and on speaking proper English emerged together in the 1700s as more people wanted to differentiate themselves from illiteracy and gain acceptance with the upper classes. Various champions of structure emerged, and one wonders what their wives must have thought of these men who were obsessed by proper use of commas and of spelling. [No love notes laying around certainly.]
As you scan your brain today for the proper word, consider placement of that semi-colon, and avoid ending a sentence with a preposition, know that these rules were not easily forged and that many a writer was a rule-breaker. The Lexicographer's Dilemma, indeed.
[Note: it is quite intimidating to write about grammar when one is a rule-breaker.]
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