Second Life Forums Archive - Today's Grammar Pet Peeve

Chance Abattoir

Future Rockin' Resmod

Join date: 3 Apr 2004

Posts: 3,898

12-09-2005 16:36

From: Selador Cellardoor

I think there is a difference between slang, including the incorporation of 'dialect words', and misuse of the language. The one enriches it, the other impoverishes it.

We are living in a world of growing illiteracy. If we are not going to be all speaking Pidgin English in a few years' time, we need to make a conscious effort to preserve the distinctions of our language.

I agree with Selador. Though I consistently make grammar mistakes, I am careful to note the meaning of words. If you choose the wrong word, then you have no hope of communicating the right idea-- but you can get away with fudging grammar a little if the right words are there to get the message across.

_____________________

"The mob requires regular doses of scandal, paranoia and dilemma to alleviate the boredom of a meaningless existence."
-Insane Ramblings, Anton LaVey

Chance Abattoir

Future Rockin' Resmod

Join date: 3 Apr 2004

Posts: 3,898

12-09-2005 16:39

From: Billy Grace

Here is a funny, somewhat related story.

My wife came home laughing and told me what someone said to her. She was at work and a colleague walked up as a car drove by. The woman looked intently at it and proclaimed, "Must be wasn't him".

We still laugh and have a private joke about that to this day.

I don't understand.

||EDIT||: Nevermind. "She," being the woman telling the story and not "her," meaning your wife. Wait... then who was the colleague? Nevermind again, still confused. Oh.. Nevermind again.

"him"==the driver (not the colleague)
"The colleague"== "The woman"
"She"=="someone"
"my wife"=="her" / the narrator speaking through you.

I think I understand now. This is why I am no longer friends with psilocybin.

_____________________

"The mob requires regular doses of scandal, paranoia and dilemma to alleviate the boredom of a meaningless existence."
-Insane Ramblings, Anton LaVey

Joy Honey

Not just another dumass

Join date: 17 Jun 2005

Posts: 3,751

12-09-2005 16:43

It's rant day for me

U instead of you (wow 2 extra letters, I must rest my fingers now)

any NUMBER in place of a LETTER. I guess that explains the Linden alphabet in Classifieds in world. U2... how about YOU TOO (oh damn, I gotta go to hospital now, I just typed 4 extra letters)

While we're on the subject of too - TOO = ALSO, TO does not (I'm really in a bad mood now, I lost my train of thought) and TWO = 2

I know there are more that really irk me.. and I get irked at myself for not knowing the difference between affect and effect

_____________________

Reality continues to ruin my life. - Calvin

You have delighted us long enough. - Jane Austen

Sometimes I need what only you can provide: your absence. - Ashleigh Brilliant

Joy Honey

Not just another dumass

Join date: 17 Jun 2005

Posts: 3,751

12-09-2005 16:44

From: Chance Abattoir

I don't understand.

well.. must be wasn't him = must not be him

maybe?

_____________________

Reality continues to ruin my life. - Calvin

You have delighted us long enough. - Jane Austen

Sometimes I need what only you can provide: your absence. - Ashleigh Brilliant

Chance Abattoir

Future Rockin' Resmod

Join date: 3 Apr 2004

Posts: 3,898

12-09-2005 16:49

From: Joy Honey

well.. must be wasn't him = must not be him

maybe?

I think there were too many frames/narrators in his story before the actual event. See extrapolation here.

_____________________

"The mob requires regular doses of scandal, paranoia and dilemma to alleviate the boredom of a meaningless existence."
-Insane Ramblings, Anton LaVey

Joy Honey

Not just another dumass

Join date: 17 Jun 2005

Posts: 3,751

12-09-2005 16:50

From: Chance Abattoir

I think there were too many frames/narrators in his story before the actual event. See extrapolation here.

_____________________

Reality continues to ruin my life. - Calvin

You have delighted us long enough. - Jane Austen

Sometimes I need what only you can provide: your absence. - Ashleigh Brilliant

Chance Abattoir

Future Rockin' Resmod

Join date: 3 Apr 2004

Posts: 3,898

12-09-2005 16:53

From: Joy Honey

And then the minotaur ate me.

_____________________

"The mob requires regular doses of scandal, paranoia and dilemma to alleviate the boredom of a meaningless existence."
-Insane Ramblings, Anton LaVey

Rickard Roentgen

Renaissance Punk

Join date: 4 Apr 2004

Posts: 1,869

12-09-2005 17:17

I personally can't stand when someone uses a pronoun to refer back to the wrong noun.

For example:

"Have you seen the winter expo yet? There's this really big snowman that looks really cool. It's sort of like burning life, only cold."

I know that logically you can figure out what "It's" is refering to (winter expo), and I'm not even sure the example constitutes a violation of sentence structure. I would have said "The Expo is sort of like burning life...". I couldn't quickly come up with a much better example. When people use too many pronouns refering to too many random previous nouns, I start to get very frusterated. The frusteration only really occurs in written documents. IMs or quick messages bug me about half as much, and in verbal communications I will probably not even flinch. However I might correct you if I think you were being ambiguous.

Edit:

From: BillyGrace

Here is a funny, somewhat related story.

My wife came home laughing and told me what someone said to her. She was at work and a colleague walked up as a car drove by. The woman looked intently at it and proclaimed, "Must be wasn't him".

We still laugh and have a private joke about that to this day.

From: Chance Abattoir

I don't understand.

||EDIT||: Nevermind. "She," being the woman telling the story and not "her," meaning your wife. Wait... then who was the colleague? Nevermind again, still confused. Oh.. Nevermind again.

"him"==the driver (not the colleague)
"The colleague"== "The woman"
"She"=="someone"
"my wife"=="her" / the narrator speaking through you.

I think I understand now. This is why I am no longer friends with psilocybin.

The above is precisely what I'm getting at.

_____________________

Chance Abattoir

Future Rockin' Resmod

Join date: 3 Apr 2004

Posts: 3,898

12-09-2005 17:34

I'm frustered too!

_____________________

"The mob requires regular doses of scandal, paranoia and dilemma to alleviate the boredom of a meaningless existence."
-Insane Ramblings, Anton LaVey

Starax Statosky

Unregistered User

Join date: 23 Dec 2003

Posts: 1,099

12-09-2005 17:45

I get really frusterated at people who misspell frustration!!!! Now for some reason I feel like I've just fallen into a trap. Come on Rick, come eat me alive!

There are no rules to language! Stop being so l33t you lot!

There is definitely no rules when pronouns are used. For example:

"My cat has caught a mouse. It is dead."

What is dead here? The cat or the mouse? Just maybe the mouse was really freaking hard and took offense at being caught and so it beat the crap out of the cat. Its all just logical guesses.

This is why computers are never going to be very good at parsing natural language. Not until they have eyes, ears, legs and fart. Hell, when they're human then they'll be able to understand our language.

I like to think that I'm human and I still struggle to figure out what you lot are talking about!

Tikki Kerensky

Insane critter

Join date: 12 Aug 2004

Posts: 687

12-09-2005 17:48

From: Nolan Nash

I probably peeve some folks with my Big Bag of Commas ™. I am not sure that I misuse them; however, I do sometimes find myself looking at what I have written and wondering.

I know I overuse them. I'm trying to stop.

_____________________

Pudding takes away the pain, the pain of not having pudding.

Rickard Roentgen

Renaissance Punk

Join date: 4 Apr 2004

Posts: 1,869

12-09-2005 17:57

muahahhaahaha, I knew I was going to get caught somewhere. Luckily, my spelling has always been horrible and doesn't bug me in the least.

I didn't say it was necessarily a grammatically incorrect way of speaking, it just drives me nuts when it's not clear what a person means. Though I do have great fun when the alternate interpretations is really funny.

Yes I just came dangerously close to using lots of indirect "it"s

. It's so hard to make drama these days. Or is it easy?

(snickers wildly)

_____________________

Starax Statosky

Unregistered User

Join date: 23 Dec 2003

Posts: 1,099

12-09-2005 18:06

From: Rickard Roentgen

muahahhaahaha, I knew I was going to get caught somewhere. Luckily, my spelling has always been horrible and doesn't bug me in the least.

I didn't say it was necessarily a grammatically incorrect way of speaking, it just drives me nuts when it's not clear what a person means. Though I do have great fun when the alternate interpretations is really funny.

Yes I just came dangerously close to using lots of indirect "it"s

. It's so hard to make drama these days. Or is it easy?

(snickers wildly)

Well I love you even more now, Rick.

Mrs Malaprop

languish and grandma

Join date: 1 Jul 2005

Posts: 2

12-09-2005 18:10

The way young people abuse language is offal. They just don't realise education determines their loot in life. If you can't spell you'll never suck seed.

Enoch Lameth

Where're my pants?

Join date: 1 Nov 2005

Posts: 131

12-09-2005 18:14

Did this one drive anyone else bat-sh*t insane when it was in circulation?

Starax Statosky

Unregistered User

Join date: 23 Dec 2003

Posts: 1,099

12-09-2005 18:23

From: Enoch Lameth

Did this one drive anyone else bat-sh*t insane when it was in circulation?

Taht was aewosme!

I was laughing while reading it because I couldn't believe that I was reading it

SuezanneC Baskerville

Forums Rock!

Join date: 22 Dec 2003

Posts: 14,229

12-09-2005 19:29

Is the use of the word" peak" instead of "pique" actually a grammatical error?

It's the wrong word, but is that a grammatical error or a semantic error or some other sort of error?

Why does one say "grammatical" but not "semantical"

_____________________

-

So long to these forums, the vBulletin forums that used to be at forums.secondlife.com. I will miss them.

I can be found on the web by searching for "SuezanneC Baskerville", or go to

http://www.google.com/profiles/suezanne

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http://lindenlab.tribe.net/ created on 11/19/03.

Members: Ben, Catherine, Colin, Cory, Dan, Doug, Jim, Philip, Phoenix, Richard,
Robin, and Ryan

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Unhygienix Gullwing

I banged Pandastrong

Join date: 26 Jun 2004

Posts: 728

12-10-2005 09:09

http://digg.com/programming/Why_don_t_we_use_quotes_in_English_like_we_do_in_code_

Apparently the use of quotations and punctuation is another source of grammar headaches.

My favorite pet peeve in grammar is "-not" abbreviations used in questions.

For example, "Didn't you go to the store today?"

This is the same as asking "Did you not go to the store today?"

I would answer "Yes, I did not go to the store today.", since I didn't, and that's what's being asked; if I did NOT go to the store.

Zuzu Fassbinder

Little Miss No Tomorrow

Join date: 17 Sep 2004

Posts: 2,048

12-10-2005 09:25

From: Unhygienix Gullwing

My favorite pet peeve in grammar is "-not" abbreviations used in questions.

For example, "Didn't you go to the store today?"

This is the same as asking "Did you not go to the store today?"

I would answer "Yes, I did not go to the store today.", since I didn't, and that's what's being asked; if I did NOT go to the store.

Hehehe, but this is an example of the subtlety you can get in english. Depending on the context, the person usually already knows the answer and it's asked rhetorically to imply something along lines of : "I told you we needed milk, why didn't you get that while you were there?" without being quite so blunt.

_____________________

From: Bud

I don't want no commies in my car. No Christians either.

Today's Grammar Pet Peeve
Chance Abattoir Future Rockin' Resmod Join date: 3 Apr 2004 Posts: 3,898	12-09-2005 16:36 From: Selador Cellardoor I think there is a difference between slang, including the incorporation of 'dialect words', and misuse of the language. The one enriches it, the other impoverishes it. We are living in a world of growing illiteracy. If we are not going to be all speaking Pidgin English in a few years' time, we need to make a conscious effort to preserve the distinctions of our language. I agree with Selador. Though I consistently make grammar mistakes, I am careful to note the meaning of words. If you choose the wrong word, then you have no hope of communicating the right idea-- but you can get away with fudging grammar a little if the right words are there to get the message across. _____________________ "The mob requires regular doses of scandal, paranoia and dilemma to alleviate the boredom of a meaningless existence." -Insane Ramblings, Anton LaVey
Chance Abattoir Future Rockin' Resmod Join date: 3 Apr 2004 Posts: 3,898	12-09-2005 16:39 From: Billy Grace Here is a funny, somewhat related story. My wife came home laughing and told me what someone said to her. She was at work and a colleague walked up as a car drove by. The woman looked intently at it and proclaimed, "Must be wasn't him". We still laugh and have a private joke about that to this day. I don't understand. \|\|EDIT\|\|: Nevermind. "She," being the woman telling the story and not "her," meaning your wife. Wait... then who was the colleague? Nevermind again, still confused. Oh.. Nevermind again. "him"==the driver (not the colleague) "The colleague"== "The woman" "She"=="someone" "my wife"=="her" / the narrator speaking through you. I think I understand now. This is why I am no longer friends with psilocybin. _____________________ "The mob requires regular doses of scandal, paranoia and dilemma to alleviate the boredom of a meaningless existence." -Insane Ramblings, Anton LaVey
Joy Honey Not just another dumass Join date: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 3,751	12-09-2005 16:43 It's rant day for me U instead of you (wow 2 extra letters, I must rest my fingers now) any NUMBER in place of a LETTER. I guess that explains the Linden alphabet in Classifieds in world. U2... how about YOU TOO (oh damn, I gotta go to hospital now, I just typed 4 extra letters) While we're on the subject of too - TOO = ALSO, TO does not (I'm really in a bad mood now, I lost my train of thought) and TWO = 2 I know there are more that really irk me.. and I get irked at myself for not knowing the difference between affect and effect _____________________ Reality continues to ruin my life. - Calvin You have delighted us long enough. - Jane Austen Sometimes I need what only you can provide: your absence. - Ashleigh Brilliant
Joy Honey Not just another dumass Join date: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 3,751	12-09-2005 16:44 From: Chance Abattoir I don't understand. well.. must be wasn't him = must not be him maybe? _____________________ Reality continues to ruin my life. - Calvin You have delighted us long enough. - Jane Austen Sometimes I need what only you can provide: your absence. - Ashleigh Brilliant
Chance Abattoir Future Rockin' Resmod Join date: 3 Apr 2004 Posts: 3,898	12-09-2005 16:49 From: Joy Honey well.. must be wasn't him = must not be him maybe? I think there were too many frames/narrators in his story before the actual event. See extrapolation here. _____________________ "The mob requires regular doses of scandal, paranoia and dilemma to alleviate the boredom of a meaningless existence." -Insane Ramblings, Anton LaVey
Joy Honey Not just another dumass Join date: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 3,751	12-09-2005 16:50 From: Chance Abattoir I think there were too many frames/narrators in his story before the actual event. See extrapolation here. _____________________ Reality continues to ruin my life. - Calvin You have delighted us long enough. - Jane Austen Sometimes I need what only you can provide: your absence. - Ashleigh Brilliant
Chance Abattoir Future Rockin' Resmod Join date: 3 Apr 2004 Posts: 3,898	12-09-2005 16:53 From: Joy Honey And then the minotaur ate me. _____________________ "The mob requires regular doses of scandal, paranoia and dilemma to alleviate the boredom of a meaningless existence." -Insane Ramblings, Anton LaVey
Rickard Roentgen Renaissance Punk Join date: 4 Apr 2004 Posts: 1,869	12-09-2005 17:17 I personally can't stand when someone uses a pronoun to refer back to the wrong noun. For example: "Have you seen the winter expo yet? There's this really big snowman that looks really cool. It's sort of like burning life, only cold." I know that logically you can figure out what "It's" is refering to (winter expo), and I'm not even sure the example constitutes a violation of sentence structure. I would have said "The Expo is sort of like burning life...". I couldn't quickly come up with a much better example. When people use too many pronouns refering to too many random previous nouns, I start to get very frusterated. The frusteration only really occurs in written documents. IMs or quick messages bug me about half as much, and in verbal communications I will probably not even flinch. However I might correct you if I think you were being ambiguous. Edit: From: BillyGrace Here is a funny, somewhat related story. My wife came home laughing and told me what someone said to her. She was at work and a colleague walked up as a car drove by. The woman looked intently at it and proclaimed, "Must be wasn't him". We still laugh and have a private joke about that to this day. From: Chance Abattoir I don't understand. \|\|EDIT\|\|: Nevermind. "She," being the woman telling the story and not "her," meaning your wife. Wait... then who was the colleague? Nevermind again, still confused. Oh.. Nevermind again. "him"==the driver (not the colleague) "The colleague"== "The woman" "She"=="someone" "my wife"=="her" / the narrator speaking through you. I think I understand now. This is why I am no longer friends with psilocybin. The above is precisely what I'm getting at. _____________________
Chance Abattoir Future Rockin' Resmod Join date: 3 Apr 2004 Posts: 3,898	12-09-2005 17:34 I'm frustered too! _____________________ "The mob requires regular doses of scandal, paranoia and dilemma to alleviate the boredom of a meaningless existence." -Insane Ramblings, Anton LaVey
Starax Statosky Unregistered User Join date: 23 Dec 2003 Posts: 1,099	12-09-2005 17:45 I get really frusterated at people who misspell frustration!!!! Now for some reason I feel like I've just fallen into a trap. Come on Rick, come eat me alive! There are no rules to language! Stop being so l33t you lot! There is definitely no rules when pronouns are used. For example: "My cat has caught a mouse. It is dead." What is dead here? The cat or the mouse? Just maybe the mouse was really freaking hard and took offense at being caught and so it beat the crap out of the cat. Its all just logical guesses. This is why computers are never going to be very good at parsing natural language. Not until they have eyes, ears, legs and fart. Hell, when they're human then they'll be able to understand our language. I like to think that I'm human and I still struggle to figure out what you lot are talking about!
Tikki Kerensky Insane critter Join date: 12 Aug 2004 Posts: 687	12-09-2005 17:48 From: Nolan Nash I probably peeve some folks with my Big Bag of Commas ™. I am not sure that I misuse them; however, I do sometimes find myself looking at what I have written and wondering. I know I overuse them. I'm trying to stop. _____________________ Pudding takes away the pain, the pain of not having pudding.
Rickard Roentgen Renaissance Punk Join date: 4 Apr 2004 Posts: 1,869	12-09-2005 17:57 muahahhaahaha, I knew I was going to get caught somewhere. Luckily, my spelling has always been horrible and doesn't bug me in the least. I didn't say it was necessarily a grammatically incorrect way of speaking, it just drives me nuts when it's not clear what a person means. Though I do have great fun when the alternate interpretations is really funny. Yes I just came dangerously close to using lots of indirect "it"s . It's so hard to make drama these days. Or is it easy? (snickers wildly) _____________________
Starax Statosky Unregistered User Join date: 23 Dec 2003 Posts: 1,099	12-09-2005 18:06 From: Rickard Roentgen muahahhaahaha, I knew I was going to get caught somewhere. Luckily, my spelling has always been horrible and doesn't bug me in the least. I didn't say it was necessarily a grammatically incorrect way of speaking, it just drives me nuts when it's not clear what a person means. Though I do have great fun when the alternate interpretations is really funny. Yes I just came dangerously close to using lots of indirect "it"s . It's so hard to make drama these days. Or is it easy? (snickers wildly) Well I love you even more now, Rick.
Mrs Malaprop languish and grandma Join date: 1 Jul 2005 Posts: 2	12-09-2005 18:10 The way young people abuse language is offal. They just don't realise education determines their loot in life. If you can't spell you'll never suck seed.
Enoch Lameth Where're my pants? Join date: 1 Nov 2005 Posts: 131	12-09-2005 18:14 Did this one drive anyone else bat-sh*t insane when it was in circulation?
Starax Statosky Unregistered User Join date: 23 Dec 2003 Posts: 1,099	12-09-2005 18:23 From: Enoch Lameth Did this one drive anyone else bat-sh*t insane when it was in circulation? Taht was aewosme! I was laughing while reading it because I couldn't believe that I was reading it
SuezanneC Baskerville Forums Rock! Join date: 22 Dec 2003 Posts: 14,229	12-09-2005 19:29 Is the use of the word" peak" instead of "pique" actually a grammatical error? It's the wrong word, but is that a grammatical error or a semantic error or some other sort of error? Why does one say "grammatical" but not "semantical" _____________________ - So long to these forums, the vBulletin forums that used to be at forums.secondlife.com. I will miss them. I can be found on the web by searching for "SuezanneC Baskerville", or go to http://www.google.com/profiles/suezanne - http://lindenlab.tribe.net/ created on 11/19/03. Members: Ben, Catherine, Colin, Cory, Dan, Doug, Jim, Philip, Phoenix, Richard, Robin, and Ryan -
Unhygienix Gullwing I banged Pandastrong Join date: 26 Jun 2004 Posts: 728	12-10-2005 09:09 http://digg.com/programming/Why_don_t_we_use_quotes_in_English_like_we_do_in_code_ Apparently the use of quotations and punctuation is another source of grammar headaches. My favorite pet peeve in grammar is "-not" abbreviations used in questions. For example, "Didn't you go to the store today?" This is the same as asking "Did you not go to the store today?" I would answer "Yes, I did not go to the store today.", since I didn't, and that's what's being asked; if I did NOT go to the store.
Zuzu Fassbinder Little Miss No Tomorrow Join date: 17 Sep 2004 Posts: 2,048	12-10-2005 09:25 From: Unhygienix Gullwing My favorite pet peeve in grammar is "-not" abbreviations used in questions. For example, "Didn't you go to the store today?" This is the same as asking "Did you not go to the store today?" I would answer "Yes, I did not go to the store today.", since I didn't, and that's what's being asked; if I did NOT go to the store. Hehehe, but this is an example of the subtlety you can get in english. Depending on the context, the person usually already knows the answer and it's asked rhetorically to imply something along lines of : "I told you we needed milk, why didn't you get that while you were there?" without being quite so blunt. _____________________ From: Bud I don't want no commies in my car. No Christians either.

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Today's Grammar Pet Peeve