A quick comment. Looking at the blog tonight I reread my post that ended up talking about rules and games, and I laughed. I think that I blanked in some way, because I was thinking about sports and the memory of my days as an athlete made what seems an obvious comment read, to me, as something else. I'll try again.

A writer's relationship to language is different than a linguist's, but both are aware of rules in ways most people are not. Written dialogue is not everyday speech but a re-creation of it. A trial lawyer's language is just as artificial, just as consciously constructed. Both are conscious rule following activities.