[aleph_minus_one]

I'm rather sure that my spoken German is on the more formal side.

> Spoken German essentially only has two tenses: 'Perfekt' (perfect) and 'Präsenz' (present)

I typically indeed use Präteritum consciously in spoken German.

> Written German: Mergen werde ich in den Urlaub fahren. Spoken German: Morgen fahre ich in den Urlaub.

Something that I am annoyed of.

[eru]

Yes, different people have different idiolects, but I'm glad you can see that the constructions I gave as examples are common in spoken German.

> Something that I am annoyed of.

It's easier to see these things with more distance and objectivity in a foreign language.

Eg think of all the English speakers who complain when people mix up its, it's, they're, their, there in writing and accuse them of 'muddled thinking' or at least of 'bad grammar'.

Of course, that's mostly just people being protective of class markers. If there's a villain in this story, it's English poorly 'designed' orthography.

Please do have a look at the Emonds paper at http://fine.me.uk/Emonds/ It's a great read!

[aleph_minus_one]

> It's easier to see these things with more distance and objectivity in a foreign language.

I have a similar opinion about such topics in foreign languages. It's just that I am much less knowledgeable concerning their subtle parts, so I as a non-native speaker can often not be sure whether I am right or I'm not aware of some subtle part of the respective language. Thus I am much more cautious concerning expressing such points for foreign languages.

But your argument

> Eg think of all the English speakers who complain when people mix up its, it's, they're, their, there in writing and accuse them of 'muddled thinking' or at least of 'bad grammar'.

which is about topics that you learn about in your first weeks of English lessons could indeed come from me.

So: I see things with the same "objectivity" in all languages (that I know or am learning); I'm just much more knowledgeable and thus outspoken concerning my native language.

[eru]

> which is about topics that you learn about in your first weeks of English lessons could indeed come from me.

There's a difference between prescriptivism and descriptivism. Languages are something people, not what grammarians make up in their books.

Please do have a look at the Emonds paper. It's interesting, I promise.