called out

there's a fairly broad line between idiosyncratic typing and unintelligible typing, at least in my opinion. text doesn't allow us the freedom speech does in that respect - we've only got 26 characters and a dozen punctuation marks to work with here, so SOME amount of homogenization is unfortunately necessary if we're all gonna understand each other.

there's a fairly broad line between idiosyncratic typing and unintelligible typing, at least in my opinion. text doesn't allow us the freedom speech does in that respect - we've only got 26 characters and a dozen punctuation marks to work with here, so SOME amount of homogenization is unfortunately necessary if we're all gonna understand each other.
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Funny, Doc, but I can hardly tell you have an accent.

I wonder if we'd need interpreters IRL.

Here is an excellent illustration of just how important proper punctuation and capitalization can be. Read the two versions of the "Dear Jack" letter and notice how punctuation and capitalization can make the exact same words mean something so completely different:

Version 1
Dear Jack,
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind and thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever happy – will you let me be yours? Jill

Version 2
Dear Jack,
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind and thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men I yearn. For you I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart I can be forever happy. Will you let me be? Yours, Jill

See what a difference punctuation makes?

Love that one.

Normally I fall into the "if the meaning is being communicated, then no big deal" camp. I'd rather hear from a diverse crowd of people and learn from the variety of experiences than effectively censor members based on grammar errors.

I must say, though, that this initial post is on the border for me...

This is EXACTLY how I feel! I would much rather read an experience written poorly and with the danger of it coming across the wrong way, then for it not to be posted at all. A few people just may "get it".

I've come across a few posts that make little since, whether it's due to grammatical issues or simply because it makes no since. After a quick read through, if the point doesn’t come across, oh well, on to the next post!

This is the danger one runs into when people who have a poor grip of the english language attempt to express there opinion in a public forum.........

Alas,

I just took a bus trip and found the bus company will no longer check luggage through to a destination.

Apparently they can no longer find baggage handlers, at least at the wage they are willing to pay, who can read a name tag or have any sense of geographic locations other than their own. If that. We are slowly descending to a pre-literate culture.



.

Please keep in mind that I am an English teacher. I'm the one who cringes everytime he sees the sign at the express lane that reads, "12 items or less". I'm sure that 95% of the people who read it don't realise that anything is wrong, but I do and it sets my teeth on edge. I rarely mention someone's grammar or spelling on a news board except in a few instances:
•When it is so bad that it's unintelligible.
•When it's in a post where someone attempts to criticise someone's spelling or grammar, and gets it wrong.
•When a person chooses a wrong word that makes the post mean something totally different from what he intended.
•When someone gets on my nerves.
•When Snackdud used to post.
Other than that, you will rarely hear a peep out of me. Of course, there are a few personal pet peeves of mine (e.g. misspelling 'definitely' as **'definately' or **'definetly'), but I generally just grit my teeth and go on.

In recent years, I've been seeing them spell it "defiantly". I think "WTF?"

I'm not an English teacher DMW but I completely agree with you on all of these. When I was in the 8th grade, we had a daily "fine point of English" lesson. Whenever we learned tidbits like "12 items or fewer" instead of "12 items or less", and the proper use of who vs whom, it made my day. Nerdy? Maybe, but it did make me feel that much more literate and cultured. Those tidbits are still with me and still give me a hardon!

BTW, question for you DMW... how come you use the British spellings (s vs z) of words like "realize" and "criticize"? I am not critiquing; rather, I wonder if I can learn something from you with this.

As for the original post, I figure if you are going to even bother to start a new thread, you must communicate enough information to illicit a response. That original post reminds me of one of my constantly drunk bros (we prefer to say he's at steady state), who sometimes wakes up when passed out, blurts out something random, and passes back out.
I guess I should do what I've always done with my friend too- shrug my shoulders, smile to myself, and move on.

Excuse while I sit here stunned that someone actually knew what was wrong with the wording on the sign! :bounce: I have a feeling that you probably know the difference between 'further' and 'farther' as well. (Around here, most folks just lump the two of them together and say 'futher', which rhymes with 'mother'.)

I have my master's degree in English literature, so the majority of the material I study on a regular basis was printed in the UK. I don't consciously differentiate between the two spelling conventions: it just comes out that way. Also remember that English is not my native language, so I didn't grow up seeing English spelt one way or the other.

[quote=DoubleMeatWhopper,May 14 2005, 03:33 AM]
Why I didn't realize that English was not your native language is beyond me. I knew you came here at age 15. I should have realized that Spanish is your native language. I noticed all the languages you can speak. My mother studied Latin in high school. And I have known others who studied Latin as well. All the people that I have known that studied Latin have a stronger understanding of English especially verb usage. My mother says that some of the conjugation of verbs in English make much more sense if you understand Latin.

You are a brilliant person, but still it is a shame that a person who doesn't speak English as a native language knows more about it and can speak it better than many who have college degrees and English is their native tongue.

Here in Redneckville, it is the double negatives that get to me; as in "There ain't no reason why" and "I don't have no pencil." All efforts in my classroom to get the students to say "I have no pencil" or "I don't have a pencial" fell on deaf ears for the most part. The answer I got was, "It don't sound right." Then I said, "You mean it doesn't sound right."

Finally I took this approach. I called proper usage "standard English" and told them they would have to use "standard English" on written assignments" throughout all their schooling and in certain business circles they would have to use "standard English" to succeed. But what they spoke with their friends or at home was their business.

Outside the classroom, I never correct people's English. Their improper use of English doesn't give me permission to be rude and to correct someone in public is rude in my book.

I make mistakes myself. And DMW I found one mistake in all your writing which is awesome. It made me feel human and know that it is impossible to never make a mistake in English. And I know you have found many on mine. I just hope I haven't hit 100 mistakes yet, though I probably have, especially in spelling or typo mistakes.

Consider yourself lucky: I hear triple and quadruple negatives at school that are like fingernails scraping against a chalkboard to me. The one that stopped me dead in my tracks was, "Ain't nobody 'round here don't got no Allen wrenches" ... of course, 'wrenches' is pronounced 'reeenchiz'. I think I broke out in a cold sweat over that one sentence. It hurt me! Needless to say, such constructions are not allowed in my classroom, and my students have surprised themselves by finding that they actually have at their command a more formal language when the occasion calls for it. They really had no idea that they could learn how to use their language correctly. They say, "I sound like I'm in a movie!"

I really don't keep a running tally on people's linguistic errors here: that was actually part of my point.

Damn boys I did not know I was turning this in for a grade. lol Maybe I should have started a thread about the propper use of puncutation. Any who glad to see you boys riled up about something.

Besides which, Americans were the original l33tz. In fact, s2z and c2k are still typical l33t5p33k.

They also did a lot of PC work. They hated the word "master", so they borrowed the Dutch word for master, baas.

In other words, every intentional means of mutilating the language to annoy your English teacher has been going on for at least two centuries.

shleevo: Some personal liguistic pet peeves.

#1 "I could care less." So, you do care some? It should be "I couldn't care less."

#2 "Vetran's Day, fedral and vetrinarian" should be "Veteran's Day, federal and veterianarian."

#3 "Dethaw" should be "defrost OR thaw."

#4 "Collectables" should be "collectibles."

#5 "Bald face lie." What is that? For the non-bearded?

The list goes on and on...