Grammar Discussions

[TheRealTMA]

Is this similar to when the TV sports report refers to part of a football club as: "the playing group"? What is wrong with "players" or "the team"?

The problem with "team" is the collective nature of the noun and whether it takes singular or plural verb! Confuses them every time.

 

[coco50]

I cringe when a police spokesperson is interviewed and refers to someone as a "male person". What is wrong with "man" or "boy"?

 

[anat0l]

I cringe when a police spokesperson is interviewed and refers to someone as a "male person". What is wrong with "man" or "boy"?

Where do you draw the line between who is a man and who is a boy?

There are 35 year old males who get chided with, "Grow up and be a <expletive> man". Does that mean they are a boy?

The practical difference, of course, is likely minimal, viz. either way we are attempting to locate a male.

 

[whatmeworry]

Star Wars VIII: The last of the Jedi. Couple of weeks ago, the fans went into a mini frenzy when the German/Spanish/French posters revealed 'Jedi' in the title was plural.

When news broke last month that Episode VIII would be called Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the response was... predictable. That's right, hundreds of online arguments spawned by that ambiguous title. After all, "Jedi" can be both singular and plural. Did this mean Luke Skywalker was "the last Jedi" all on his own?
Now we wonder no more.
There will be more than one Jedi, so fan theories that we'll see Luke train a new crop of force-wielders are starting to look good. Foreign-language titles have started appearing for the movie ahead of its December 2017 release, and there's nothing ambiguous about it in French, German, or Spanish:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/02/star-wars-the-last-jedi-its-definitely-plural/

 

[coco50]

Where do you draw the line between who is a man and who is a boy?

There are 35 year old males who get chided with, "Grow up and be a <expletive> man". Does that mean they are a boy?

The practical difference, of course, is likely minimal, viz. either way we are attempting to locate a male.

Man = 18 years +. Boy = under 18. As the meerkat says: "Simples".

 

[anat0l]

Man = 18 years +. Boy = under 18. As the meerkat says: "Simples".

That would be your frame of reference (as well as many others, I might add). If we were in the USA, you may argue for 21 instead of 18.

Some would argue that the boundary should be 12 years old, i.e. as I was told as a child, the transition from the title of "Master" to "Mister". (Also when you stop paying child fares and start paying adult fares).

Some might say it's 16 years old, i.e. the age of consent.

There's even a bit of a trend going where "boy" is now reserved as a term of endearment in an informal context. For example, an U16 football team might be referred to as "great boys" in field conversation, but on the local news they may be called "fine young men" instead. A similar trend is happening with females.

In any case, although it doesn't do much at all, saying "male person" probably won't raise too many ires if there are any. I suppose, one other explanation is that police might get used to saying "male Caucasian", "male Asian", "male youths", etc. so the second word is just replaced with a generic word (in the absence of a better descriptor) because saying something like "male boy" is redundant.

This conversation isn't really talking about grammar, however.

 

[JohnK]

Man = 18 years +. Boy = under 18. As the meerkat says: "Simples".

Not that simple. I would argue 25 years old as the age one becomes an adult.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Not that simple. I would argue 25 years old as the age one becomes an adult.

By definition, one becomes an adult when one can either vote or enlist or be conscripted into the armed forces.

 

[JohnK]

By definition, one becomes an adult when one can either vote or enlist or be conscripted into the armed forces.

My definition of an adult obviously differs from that definition. Was it ever 25? I know in many parts around the world it is 21. In my opinion 18 is too young and now I have a daughter 18 is way too young.

 

[Warks]

Yes my parents were both working at the age of 15 and my father had left home to work in the big city. Try and imagine kids doing that today. They can barely boil a kettle to make pot noodles by the time they graduate at 24. Well some of them anyway. There are some very capable young people out there.

I think Iceland had a drinking age of 25 at one stage.

 

[JohnK]

Life is different today.

From memory mum left school in Year 5 to help take care of 2 younger sisters and she was working before she was 15. Dad finished primary school when he was 15 as schools were closed during the war and then followed by the civil war. They couldn't afford to buy clothes let alone send dad to high school. Dad had already been helping taking care of younger sister since he was 9 years old and cooking and taking food for lunch to his brothers and sisters out in the various fields we had to plant crops.

Apologies for going off topic but I have respect for that generation. They didn't dare complain. Just get on with life.

 

[wandering_fred]

Not that simple. I would argue 25 years old as the age one becomes an adult.

Equally possible argument is that some people never become adults (ie at any age). Though perhaps financial circumstances allow them to become "independent".

Happy wandering

Fred

 

[Warks]

Life is different today.

From memory mum left school in Year 5 to help take care of 2 younger sisters and she was working before she was 15. Dad finished primary school when he was 15 as schools were closed during the war and then followed by the civil war. They couldn't afford to buy clothes let alone send dad to high school. Dad had already been helping taking care of younger sister since he was 9 years old and cooking and taking food for lunch to his brothers and sisters out in the various fields we had to plant crops.

Apologies for going off topic but I have respect for that generation. They didn't dare complain. Just get on with life.

Yes people who lived through wars get my respect every time. Also real poverty such as during the Great Depression. Had an uncle who left school at 12 during the Depression and trapped possums for a living. He said he made more than his father during that time as he was a pretty good trapper. A self-made man, eventually married, bought a run-down farm and did it up and farmed for about 60 years. Never knew much about politics or popular culture but knew animals and the bush like the back of his hand. Was really good at mental arithmetic too! Also great handwriting although he only wrote lists.

I digress too...

 

[JessicaTam]

[mod hat]
Ahem. This is the grammar thread.

Back to the grammar discussion please.
[/mod hat]

 

[TheRealTMA]

[mod hat]
Ahem. This is the grammar thread.

Back to the grammar discussion please.
[/mod hat]

Maybe the OPs were intending to show usage of reflexive verbs, or self referencing at least.

 

[Warks]

I was going to say how these people who had limited schooling seemed to pick up how to spell and write as well as speak well without the benefit of 13 years of schooling but forgot...

(How does that sound?)

 

[esseeeayeenn]

I was going to say how these people who had limited schooling seemed to pick up how to spell and write as well as speak well without the benefit of 13 years of schooling but forgot...

(How does that sound?)

A surprising number don't pick up how to read or write but pick up on strategies to disguise their illiteracy instead.
Many also pick up that schooling is more properly referred to as education.

 

[TheRealTMA]

It's now been changed but earlier today some amusing sub-editor used gender specific language "Henrietta Augusta Dugdale: Australian suffragette honoured by Google" to describe one of our pioneering feminists who founded country’s first female suffragist society and called for equal rights for women.

 

[Warks]

Look I know that decimated has come to mean 'wrecked' or similar to people who don't understand 'decima' means ten but this usage has taken it to another level of dumb:

SYRIA’S use of chemical weapons is more extensive than previously known, and new evidence has “decimated” Russia’s cover-up.

 

[Deleted member]

i am not sure if this has been covered, but misuse of That, Which and Who is really annoying me.

Inanimate objects (things) can be that , or which , but People are who.
Eg. I have a friend that went to my old school , should read "who" went to my old school.