It's a grave discussion, gone acute...

"somnify" or, perhaps, the acronym, "witaom" for "wrapped in the arms of Morpheus"

What about thinking in terms of levels of "formality": Good/Bad is simplistic, Right/Wrong is familiar, and Correct/Incorrect is formal.

I must giggle, though, and your use of the term, "hard and fast rule" when discussing English... :o)

I love this discussion! The BBC practice of pronouncing foreign place names as if they are written phonetically (as opposed to pronouncing them in their native tongue) - think Nicaragua (nick-are-agg-you-uh) - is matched only by the American abiltiy to speak non-standard English. We use non-English words on a regular basis, but invariably pronounce them incorrectly -- hence the "reh-zoo-may". My favorite, though, is "lingerie" -- which nearly EVERY American who uses the word pronounces it as "lawn-jer-ay". Back on topic - I use résumé to show that I can parle un petit peu francais, and have both a résumé (listing my artistic accomplishments) and a CV (listing my academic experiences). The former is a list - the latter a narrative.