So where does L'acadamie Francaise fall on your continuum? --on the side of reaction, clearly, and as I indicated, I haven't a problem with that. Of course, the French have their own cultural issues, and a different attitude toward linguistic "purity." English, after all, has been a cheerful mongrel of a language ever since it re-emerged from several generations spent below the salt, grammatically slimmed down and itself substantially gallicized, during the Hundred Years' War. Indeed, now I think on it, it's odd to consider how the French are considered such libertines, in the popular imagination, in matters of the flesh, contrasted to our own Puritan tradition, whereas when it comes to the company they keep it is the French language that's historically strait-laced, whereas English, really, is a bit of a slut...
cordially,
[edit: duplicate English word]