Grammar Discussions

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Oh my God the English language is difficult!

I do not follow this thread, but chanced upon it yet again.

(two errors thrown in there for fun :)

I love language, I hate change, but in my weary later years I have perhaps succumbed to the influence of my teenage daughters. And my curent view is that it is I, the traditional person, who is wrong. It is not the incessant hordes of people who violate old standards.

Language is about communication. Fundamentally so. And these dear teens seem to be doing a great job of it - morphing old school english language with new concepts. They actually develop very fast adaptions to truly satisfy current communication needs. Apostrophe's were important in my day. But education as to classical usage of these, seems to me, to be totally wasteful and ridiculous in a dynamic communication environment.

It is possibly perverse that many proponents of old-school english are actually undermining the central need for language - communication!!
 
It is possibly perverse that many proponents of old-school english are actually undermining the central need for language - communication!!

For communication to occur, there needs to be understanding of what's said or written. Having different languages is one of the greatest barriers to communication and therefore understanding around the world. Having English splinter into little casual sub groups may be cool but it will hinder understanding between groups ( eg young and old; urban and rural).

By the way, if you haven't read The Surgeon of Crowthorne, by Simon Winchester, it should be in your Christmas hols reading list 😊.
 
Aswell isn’t a word! It is two words “ as well”.
For those on this site who don’t already know, there is a spell check (autocorrect) feature they can use !
 
The Surgeon of Crowthorne, by Simon Winchester… sold ..thanks Rooflyer , added to the( burgeoning) Kindle Library.

Picking holes in casual typing errors is a world away from promulgating the kind of pidgin english that is currently evolving under the guise of progress…just sayin...
 
Just spotted a howler in the weekend Oz in an article by Troy Bramston about the passing of (the brilliant) Clive James."He saw himself, first and foremost, as a writer who ploughed his trade in various fields....." I thought it was a typo but since the author goes on to talk about fields, maybe not. Whichever, Clive James indeed plied his trade, to our great enjoyment
 
Just spotted a howler in the weekend Oz in an article by Troy Bramston about the passing of (the brilliant) Clive James."He saw himself, first and foremost, as a writer who ploughed his trade in various fields....." I thought it was a typo but since the author goes on to talk about fields, maybe not. Whichever, Clive James indeed plied his trade, to our great enjoyment

Could it be a double entendre, alluding to the deceased making heavy work of his career…nah.. I agree ...it was just slack composition...:rolleyes:
 
The Surgeon of Crowthorne, by Simon Winchester… sold ..thanks Rooflyer , added to the( burgeoning) Kindle Library.

Picking holes in casual typing errors is a world away from promulgating the kind of pidgin english that is currently evolving under the guise of progress…just sayin...
Of course Baldrick assisted Blackadder when they misplaced Johnson’s version -

Dog: not a cat.
 
So relieved to know I'm not alone....🤪 I think my pedanticism when it comes to grammer is a benefit (curse) of a good catholic education.... Seriously, it is concening that literacy has become so undervalued in society. The command of language and grammer is something everyone seeking to effectively communicate in any public fora should aspire to. Hard to know if the current decline in societal literacy is due to declining teacher standards, absent parental oversight, the pervasive reductive impacts of social media or actual evolutionary processes at work...
 

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