I agree that many words are created and spread as memes. But I struggle to come up with examples (outside of religion) where the meanings or usages of words are prescribed by a small group, and great offense is taken when the words are not used according to the prescriptions.
I don't believe language prescriptivism has any merit. Words have value because they imply a meaning and if I can use a word, and you understand my meaning when I use that word, the word has value.
Prescriptivism doesn't "work pretty well in programming languages". It's a frustrating requirement of current programming languages and runtimes.
If someone were to release a runtime that could reliably do "what a programmer means" instead of "what the programmer types" that runtime would be heralded as one of the greatest advancements in computer science in history.
Thankfully, the human mind is not as limited in its ability to parse context.
Ah yes, but how do you interpret "what the programmer means" besides "what he types"? If what he types is open to various interpretations, it becomes impossible to divine what he means without asking him for clarification. This is the case with spoken language, especially to audiences with differing contexts. That's exactly why having a maximally simple and clear reference to the meanings of words is important. It's in order to avoid having to clarify what you mean when you say "women's swimming competition", for instance.
