Mangled and abused words and phrases

[Mikey P]

Oo! I'm on a roll now: if you are talking about things you can count, use 'fewer'. If you can't count it, use 'less'.

For example, 'I would like to carry less weight' and 'I want to end up with fewer knives in my drawer'

Also: 'draw' and 'drawer'. Come on people! Heh heh! Brilliant! I'm going to explode with pedantry...

[swright81076]

I've seen a nice t shirt with the words

'Worlds goodest teecher', rather appropriate to dis thread innit.

sent from my Jelly Bean'd galaxy nexus.

[Mikey P]

How about 'Dr Whom'?

[British Red]

Boldly to split infitives that no man has previously split.

[decorum]

Nonsensical words and phrases do make me chuckle ~ 'Unpeel a Solero!'. Just how do you do that? 'Irregardless' ~ Regardless of the regard?!

But I do like etymology and I think that every generation complains that the youth of the day don't do things correctly .

"Traditional" - something hairy, uncomfortable and lacking the benefits that technology has brought to human existence.

John Fenna to a tee!

[Toddy]

I'm about to alienate all of Glasgow now but I tease my friend about this all the time. I don't know if this is common elsewhere in Scotland but, here, people say 'I done that' and 'I seen that' instead of 'I did that' or 'I saw that'. I've bloody started doing it too now!

I jest you not, this is grammatically acceptable. Seriously, because it is used consistantly, and in correct context, and is tense sensitive, it is considered to be colloquial grammar.
Still bugs me though, "I have saw that did", :shudder:

I do think many of the grammatical irritations are simply attempts at expression in a limited medium. I use the smilies, but even those are not always perceived in the same light by everyone.
The classic is the little ; I think it's a gentle poke in the ribs smirk, but BR thinks it snide I know this so I make an effort not to use it in posts directed to him, but with other people I use if freely.

It's the same thing with words; where people try to create not only the speech, but the intonation and the emotions (for instance; you're my friend, I know you'll take this the way I mean, or I'm being very polite, or I'm unhappy and putting a brave face on things) that emulate normal conversation and the social cues that accompany that conversation.

Good writing, where one reads the intent clearly without confusion, is really very rare nowadays. Technical journals are a case in point but the babble of academia, while it may be grammatically correct, can be nightmarish to interpret.
To, too and two are small change in the scheme of things, irritating though they might be in their ability to muddle the sense of the sentence. Frankly, I think the former is worse than the latter.

I recentlyt received the following:-

Please find below a final call for papers for a proposed TAG
2012 session, ‘Crafting-in-the-World: the temporal and spatial
dynamics of craft and its practitioners’.

Abstract:
Whilst the last two decades have witnessed a prolific interest
in craft studies, which have increasingly acknowledged the
sociality of craft, the role of choice, and the importance of
the body in the development and transmission of craft
traditions, there remains an uncomfortable dichotomy between
the temporal and spatial understandings of craft practice. The
abundance of existing research has traditionally focused on
either describing production processes or attempted to
theorise how the finished products of craft acquire meaning.
The separation of object from process has resulted in the
products of craft looming un-tethered to practice, devoid of
spatial and temporal understandings of craft practice.

Papers for the session could address the following themes:
• Reconciling continuity and change: redundancy,
innovation and change (every innovation involves loss and
gain); re-contextualisation of innovations; why some things
change and others don’t (i.e., there is no such thing as progress).
• Spatial articulation of craft: technological ‘features’
as architecture; space shaping practices and practices shaping
space; compartmentalization of space and time geographies.
• Tangled web of technological practice: communities of
practice; Complementing, referencing, incorporating aspects of
other crafts; mobile crafts (i.e., itinerant crafts people).


cheers,
M

[Harvestman]

My problem with dialects and accents is when people ue them when speaking with people outside of their dialect pool.

The whole point of language is communication. If the person you are speaking to does not understand you, then you haven't actually said anything.

Same applies to people writing in dialect, which seems popular on here.

"Git r dun" ??!

[Hoodoo]

"hey does anyone no what the best type of stick to buy is i would like to buy some and wonted to no so any help would be gr8 ha ha I'm a bit dense lols!"

I prefer sticks made of wood.

[Biker]

Good thread this. (God I hope that no one picks me up for incorrect grammer usage)

I have a couple of pet peeves. One is when people use the phrase "At this precise moment in time." instead of saying "now". I have a friend here who uses it constanly and it's like sandpaper over my frontal lobes when I hear it.

I'm sure a lot of these short cut phrases are a direct result of TV soaps, in particular EastEnders. I was born and bred in South East London and had a typical London accent when I later moved to Kent, soon lost it over the coming years though. But hearing that shrieking and shouting and the slang they use on it has a lot to account for how the next generations will use the english langauge and communicate.

About text speak. I read somewhere that anti-bullying posters were put up in schools and were written entirely in text speak. Apparently it was a huge success because kids actually stopped to read it and absorb the information.

As has been said Somethink instead of something.

My mother uses the word Cerstifficate instead of certificate.

Can't think of any others that haven't been mentioned already.

[santaman2000]

I prefer sticks made of wood.

As oposed to sticks made of would?

[boatman]

PS - Humpback - I share your pain at the lack of good grammar/spelling. If the non-native speakers can make the effort...

Why use grammar/spelling then rather than grammar and spelling?

[Toddy]

My problem with dialects and accents is when people ue them when speaking with people outside of their dialect pool.

The whole point of language is communication. If the person you are speaking to does not understand you, then you haven't actually said anything.

Same applies to people writing in dialect, which seems popular on here.

"Git r dun" ??!

I regularly confuse Hoodoo in the Mods simply by using words that are familiar and common among my family, friends and neighbours. Coggle was the last one I used on the forum. I thought it was perfectly ordinary English, and only when someone commented did I go and look it up, only to discover that it was a Scottish word we really do make an effort to write in clear English; believe me you'd soon know if we didn't I suspect that this effort is pretty widespread among the membership.

cheers,
M

[santaman2000]

I regularly confuse Hoodoo in the Mods simply by using words that are familiar and common among my family, friends and neighbours. Coggle was the last one I used on the forum. I thought it was perfectly ordinary English, and only when someone commented did I go and look it up, only to discover that it was a Scottish word ...

Trust me Mary, you use loads of words which would be totally meaningless to me if there wasn't the context given by the rest of the paragragh.

[Biker]

Trust me Mary, you use loads of words which would be totally meaningless to me if there wasn't the context given by the rest of the paragragh.

Here here. or perhaps Hear hear would be better.

Sorry Toddy, but some of the words you use are just bizarre. But we still like you.

[decorum]

... using words that are familiar and common among my family, friends and neighbours. Coggle was the last one I used on the forum. I thought it was perfectly ordinary English, and only when someone commented did I go and look it up, only to discover that it was a Scottish word

It's the context Mary. I like colloquialisms, like most here, you provide a good framework around the 'Scotticisms'. Few of us have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the English language and 'how she is spoke'. In general if I don't know a word or phrase I'll either look it up or ask (as with coggle, a good word which has now been borrowed on a permanent basis ). However, those who write mainly in fore-shortened dialect, providing no context to work from and making no effort to be understood by anyone outside of their region are skimmed past and ignored.

[Hoodoo]

'I want to end up with fewer knives in my drawer'

That doesn't make sense. Besides, I have drawers.

[British Red]

As a thought, the thread seems to be about words that are mangled or abused rather than mangled and abused.

[Adze]

Less and fewer: Fewer people eat less food (for example)

Infer and imply: I cringe every time someone says "Are you inferring that..." when they really mean implying.

[Adze]

Grammar is the difference between
Your muck
and
You're muck

Re Grammar - there's a similar phrase to do with punctuation.

"Good punctuation and syntax is the difference between helping your uncle, Jack, PLAY NICE. "

EDIT: re-edited so it's a little more obvious which bit of the post was edited by the moderator /EDIT

I'm sure you can work out the rest

[launditch1]

Ahh, you should see the fast food joint near me then..they sell burger's, Frie's, drink's,

This one more of a bugbear to me: 'Can i get a coffee?'
No!You cant!I'm serving you..i will get the coffee, not you.

[Toddy]

I managed an A in Higher English, I have an honours university degree, and I still find it difficult to limit my vocabulary to plain English
Even teachers who belted us in school for using words like, "Aye", "Gie", "Thon", had no complaints about us using nouns, verbs and adjectives that now seem to be purely Scottish funny old world.
How do folks South of the Border where they still retain local accents and vocabularies manage ? or is it just that there's rather a lot of us and it's not simply a small region sort of thing ? Do the Welsh and Irish have the same issues that I do ?

Chisellers signature I look on just as I would one in latin; it's just a kind of neat wee phrase I've met him and his missus, I can almost hear him say it now

Actually, there's a good point. Among those whose written language confuses, I find that if I have met them, being able to put a voice to the written word makes a tremendous difference.
I am often surprised by just how different the writer is in real life to the imagined personality from the forum.

In real life I'm quietly spoken (no rolling around on the floor now gentlemen )


Mary

[boatman]

Doesn't it make a nonsense of the teaching of Erse, Gaelic and Welsh as living languages? Why would anybody want their children to be cut off from communicating with the rest of the English-speaking World? Especially when they did not learn them. Likewise the acceptance of inner city argots is wrong.

[sandbender]

Doesn't it make a nonsense of the teaching of Erse, Gaelic and Welsh as living languages? Why would anybody want their children to be cut off from communicating with the rest of the English-speaking World? Especially when they did not learn them. Likewise the acceptance of inner city argots is wrong.

No, not really, the ability to speak another language or languages, even if they are no longer in use is never a bad thing.

The English speaking world may do most of the speaking, but they are mostly saying the same thing. Other languages offer a different perspective.

An earlier poster suggested that we should accept that language will evolve, true, but it can devolve too. However not all 'youth-speak' is bad, some of it has a surprising range of expression and meaning.

[abominable_scouse_monster]

Almost as good as the one on the news the other days Mike " a very fatal accident", i thought fatal was well, fatal, didn't realise there was more than one version?.

Michael Burke is a legend

I suppose there is, Slipped on a wet floor and cracked his head on the counter top kind of Fatal accident, and the Guy who crashes a lorry full of snakes and tigers into another lorry full of used needles and baby nappies that rolls into a open tank at a sewage treatment plant kind of accident, because the latter is the more fatal if you ask me

''Can you learn me that?'' - Learn you it?! TEACH

^ That one really really winds me up, I work in IT and when your trying to figure out just what some one has done to there PC and your using *GASP* keyboard short cuts to do something and you hear ''Can you learn me that?, so I can do it myself next time" winds me up something rotten.
I do generally give them a nice and polite no followed by a explanation, but after the 50th time I tend to get a little more verbose.

[Wayland]

I love the mixed ethnicity of our so called English language. It is its many borrowed words from far and wide that makes it so descriptive.

What I do lament is the laziness and neglect that turns it into almost pure garbage in the mouths and writings of some of our population.

Text speak is part of this problem but so is the lack of basic punctuation or use of capital letters which makes reading their missives such a toil.

[Adze]

some one has done to there PC and your using ...

I work in I.T. too. "Someone has done to their PC and you're using..."

Keyboard shortcuts? Hehe... give me a CLI every time, although there's a few shortcuts in those too.

[abominable_scouse_monster]

Almost as good as the one on the news the other days Mike " a very fatal accident", i thought fatal was well, fatal, didn't realise there was more than one version?.

Michael Burke is a legend

I work in I.T. too. "Someone has done to their PC and you're using..."

Keyboard shortcuts? Hehe... give me a CLI every time, although there's a few shortcuts in those too.

I am sure there is a Godwin reference I could make

I support about 500 XP systems about 30 vista ones and 5 OLD DEC systems (for the non IT geeks they are stone age IT systems in this case dating from the mid 70's), and a few FreeBSD systems so I would like to spend more time in the terminal but when the applications are nearly 90% GUI based there is a fat chance of that,

[santaman2000]

Less and fewer: Fewer people eat less food (for example)

Infer and imply: I cringe every time someone says "Are you inferring that..." when they really mean implying.

You've been watching too many Big Bang Theory reruns. That's one of Sheldon's peeves.

[santaman2000]

Re Grammar - there's a similar phrase to do with punctuation.

"Good punctuation and syntax is the difference between helping your uncle, Jack, xxx..."

I'm sure you can work out the rest

LOL. That's the one I entered that Hoodoo edited.

[santaman2000]

...I'm sure a lot of these short cut phrases are a direct result of TV soaps, in particular EastEnders...

Or are the soaps using words and phrases because they're already in the poular lexicon?