In Crystal's tide metaphor, language changes are described as:

• A. Changes are always improvements
• B. Changes are always declines
• C. Just changes that are neither better nor worse
• D. Changes are only temporary

Answer: (C)

Language change, in Crystal’s tide metaphor, is shown as a natural, ongoing flux rather than a sign of progress or decline. The tide imagery plants changes firmly in usage—rising, spreading, or ebbing—without making judgments about whether they’re better or worse. That value-neutral view is why the best choice is that language changes are simply changes that are neither better nor worse. Some changes may endure and become part of the language, while others may fade away, but the metaphor doesn’t promise they’re merely temporary or that they always improve or decline.