posted
Every day some or other bullshit media outlet is crowing about how thucking fick people are nowadays, neglecting, as ever, to focus on their own role in this depressing process.
Since I've been posting on the internet I've noticed crazy mis-spellings and grammatical mix-ups inserting themselves into my off-line writing that simply never would 'of' happened, six or seven years ago (most egregiously, your/you're mix-ups, which reduce you from being a respected producer of sparkling copy into a dribbling twattard in a matter of a single word).
Examples of your own dumbing-down tipping points, pls? And who's really to blame?
PF:
I received this today as part of daily science/tech email update that I subscribe to:
quote:Embargo Date: 22/2/2007, 0:01 Posted: 19/2/2007, 12:40 Posted by: John Wiley & Sons
A study of 36 Spanish honeys from different floral origins revealed that honeys generated by bees feeding on honeydew have greater antioxidant properties than those produced by bees feeding on nectar. The study is published in this month’s edition of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.
For a second - for two seconds - I read this as referring to 36 attractive young Spanish women.
posted
obviously i am prone to typos and such, but i get well fucked off when people write "your" instead of "you're". it's everywhere, especially on myspazz. i blame god.
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posted
people who say pacific when they mean specific
aaarrrgghhh
Also someone at my work recently wrote to someones gp asking for more information on a patients 'Instrumental Bleeding' rather than Intermenstrual bleeding That one still makes me cringe now...
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posted
I was just thinking about how I didn't have anything to offer on this topic, and then I stood up from my desk and someone said "Hi Nathan," and I stared at them for a few seconds and replied "Yeah, I'm alright how -are... no... er... Hello", as though I were a malfunctioning robot cycling through the correct response.
Also yesterday, I was giving out my email address to a PR and I forgot what my own name was. I had to check it in an email in my sent items folder. I definitely blame the internet for that. Over the last five years people have addressed me as 'Thorn' at least as much as by my real first name.
quote:Originally posted by Kira: Also someone at my work recently wrote to someones gp asking for more information on a patients 'Instrumental Bleeding' rather than Intermenstrual bleeding That one still makes me cringe now...
Apostrophes are a pretty annoying one, too. I mean - people say things like 'oH i WaS niVER tauT iT in skOOl' but it's not like your capacity for learning just... stops when you leave school. It's not that fucking hard to get it right! People learn foreign languages at the age of 50! How thicko do you have to be to consistently fuck up a hard and fast logical rule in your own tongue?
-------------------- Now that you've called me by name? Posts: 2007
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posted
I have tried to acquire tolerance and understanding of other people's grammatical spasticity, but there are still things that rub me up the wrong way, when they probably shouldn't.
The reason why is probably the biggest. It is so ubiquitous that Radio 4 presenters and Guardian writers use it regularly, and it could be argued that it is now acceptable useage. But it really fucks me off to hear it.
Apostrophes, yeah, people should just fucking learn them. Would people like a lesson? It's really, really easy.
Another one is less and fewer. Again, not that fucking hard.
And then all the usual cuplrits:
too/to your/you're they're/their/there should of etc.
I think the perception of a greater proliferation of shite grammar is due to the fact that the net has led to us reading far more material from other people - ordinary, bad-writing people.
But, language evolves, and should evolve, and becomes simpler over time, and should become simpler - and I don't think we're in danger of losing any subtlety of nuance.
Language fascism is almost as bad as, er, language anarchy.
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quote:Originally posted by mart: The reason why is probably the biggest.
Haha! Snorton is fond of this kind of thing. A while back he said something like "added additional" and when I complained at him, he changed it to "added extra", as though that made any difference at all.
Also! Few people seem to know how to use 'THAT' and 'WHICH' correctly. The website that they built before I got here was full of those errors, which really pissed me off.
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H1ppychick
We all prisoners, chickee-baby. We all locked in.
posted
'hoards' instead of 'hordes'.
'these ones'.
'literally' used inappropriately.
'off of'. it's 'from', fucktard.
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quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Also! Few people seem to know how to use 'THAT' and 'WHICH' correctly. The website that they built before I got here was full of those errors, which really pissed me off.
dont you mean The website which they built before I got here was full of those errors, THAT really pissed me off
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quote:Originally posted by Nathan Bleak: Also! Few people seem to know how to use 'THAT' and 'WHICH' correctly. The website that they built before I got here was full of those errors, which really pissed me off.
dont you mean The website which they built before I got here was full of those errors, THAT really pissed me off
No, obviously not.
You use comma which if you've already got what would be a complete sentence, eg
"This is my new house, which Jack built"
Use 'that' if you're - you know - completing a sentence eg
posted
I think it was an unnecessarily hyphenated "well", as in "she was well-liked".
"She was a well-liked woman" would be fine.
But it's no big deal. Even Fowler fucks up in a few places, and he's the daddy.
Oooh another one: none used as a plural. "None of the people were there".
Data as a singular.
Most of these don't rile me in informal speech, and I often use them myself - it's in formal writing or speaking that it shouldn't happen.
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"The thing is, is..." - Why the fuck do you need to say is twice?
"Basically..." - There are times when it's correct to use this word, but most of the time it's used simply as filler. I sometimes find it slipping out of my mouth, and have to fight back the urge to punch myself in the face.
"Its/it's" - When compiling the last catalogue I spent ten minutes arguing with one of the content writers over the unnecessary apostrophe he insisted on adding to the word its. "But it 'belongs to it' so it has an apostrophe, yeah? Like Dan's if it belongs to Dan"
Does anyone watch BBC Four's *Never Mind the Full-stops? It's Buzzcocks for grammar nazis.
ETA: Can someone explain when to use commas. I've been meaning to ask someone since I was eight.
quote:Originally posted by Kira: Also someone at my work recently wrote to someones gp asking for more information on a patients 'Instrumental Bleeding' rather than Intermenstrual bleeding That one still makes me cringe now...
Apostrophes are a pretty annoying one, too. I mean - people say things like 'oH i WaS niVER tauT iT in skOOl' but it's not like your capacity for learning just... stops when you leave school. It's not that fucking hard to get it right! People learn foreign languages at the age of 50! How thicko do you have to be to consistently fuck up a hard and fast logical rule in your own tongue?
posted
I know someone who says, "You always have to reduce things to the Lowest Common Denominator, don't you!"
Looking at the Wiki entry for LCD, it seems that this may actually be a fairly common figurative use of the term, but I'm not convinced myself.
I think she uses it because it includes the words "lowest" and "common", which may be sneered with ease. It would be even better if it was, "Lowest Common Moroninator" or something, but "Denominator" is vague enough to work for many people.
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H1ppychick
We all prisoners, chickee-baby. We all locked in.
posted
I don't think there's a comma rule, as such. The approach I generally take is insert a comma if there would be a natural pause if the sentence were to be spoken, like that one there.
Someone with more language madskills would probably tell you it's used to separate clauses, or something.
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posted
Hey hey, hold up. This thread was meant to be about examples of your own stupidity, not other people's.
As for Never Mind the Full Stops - that guy may well have written Gosford Park, but I wouldn't say someone who appeared in Monarch of the Glen of Shit has any right to fucking lecture anyone about anything, ever.
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posted
I feel the use of written language very restricting, how the fuck is one meant to write in a brummy accent? how can you write in a voice dripping sarcasm, how does one differentiate "it was a time of war" and that lilting deep voice like molasses over gravel saying "It was a time of war." fuck writing and lets start speaking to each other again. It is so much easier to get ones point accross without it being mis-understood.
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posted
I used to be really good at spelling and even used to help my mum proof read her school news letter when I was younger, but now thanks to msn my brain has a tendency to go blank at the proper spelling of certain words. I've even been known to mix up your and you're occasionally, although it winds me up so much I tend to notice I've done it straight away, luckily.
Re other peoples stupidity, I always have the urge to kill, or at least badly injure, anyone who uses more than one exclamation mark.
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That one still makes me cringe now...
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