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Old 09-26-2009, 11:47 AM
 
4,407 posts, read 9,091,841 times
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I am very tired of the trend in language today where the words ever, actually, ironically, um, and of course like are so overused. It is to the point where the words have lost their true meanings.


First the word ever, as in best ever is just getting out of hand. Radio and TV ads have people using this phrase ad nauseum. "We have the best sandwiches ever" for example. Why limit yourself by making such a proclamation? Life continues to evolve, and there will be more great experiences. At least I hope so. So stop with the ever.


Sentences are continually started with um, actually or ironically. The usage is always incorrect and unnecessary. In the case of um, it just makes you sound dumb.



In regards to like, this is always ridiculous. I was like, Im like, it's like. come on people! You either are or you are not. Enough of this nonsense! Learn to speak!
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Old 09-26-2009, 12:20 PM
 
Location: South of Maine
737 posts, read 1,031,810 times
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Before we can express a complete thought, we have to have one. The examples you have given show how lazy and sloppy our language skills can become, when we ignore basic rules of english. As we build our vocabularies, we should be careful not to overlook the simple, basic words that bring with them understanding.
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Old 09-26-2009, 07:59 PM
 
Location: A Nation Possessed
25,281 posts, read 18,426,450 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by loose cannon View Post
I am very tired of the trend in language today where the words ever, actually, ironically, um, and of course like are so overused. It is to the point where the words have lost their true meanings.


First the word ever, as in best ever is just getting out of hand. Radio and TV ads have people using this phrase ad nauseum. "We have the best sandwiches ever" for example. Why limit yourself by making such a proclamation? Life continues to evolve, and there will be more great experiences. At least I hope so. So stop with the ever.


Sentences are continually started with um, actually or ironically. The usage is always incorrect and unnecessary. In the case of um, it just makes you sound dumb.



In regards to like, this is always ridiculous. I was like, Im like, it's like. come on people! You either are or you are not. Enough of this nonsense! Learn to speak!
Ummm.... you have to understand that some people do not think or convert thoughts to words as fast as you would like them too. It doesn't mean they are stupid, it only means their thought-to-speech processing is slower. Thinking at a slower rate does not equal stupidity. In the long run, a person who processes his/her thoughts more slowly may well be far more intelligent than a good rhetorician who speaks like an auctioneer.

Our society is far too obsessed with speed in too many aspects of our lives. I teach math, and I’d far prefer a student who takes three hours on my test and gets 100% to a ‘fast thinker’ student who gets it done in twenty minutes and gets a 65%.

As for the 'ummmm,' it's filler while the person organizes thought to speech. It's less awkward than a big gap of silence.

I will admit that some of the other words that you mention (like, etc) are annoying when they become a habit, rather than a ‘filler’ between thoughts. When someone like uses like the like word ‘like’ in like this fashion, it is like no longer a like ‘filler,’ it’s just a bad habit. I still say it has no direct correlation to intelligence though. It’s more like someone who has a nervous twitch or who makes weird noises inside his/her mouth without really knowing he/she is doing it.
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Old 09-26-2009, 08:06 PM
 
Location: Sango, TN
24,869 posts, read 24,294,338 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by loose cannon View Post
I am very tired of the trend in language today where the words ever, actually, ironically, um, and of course like are so overused. It is to the point where the words have lost their true meanings.


First the word ever, as in best ever is just getting out of hand. Radio and TV ads have people using this phrase ad nauseum. "We have the best sandwiches ever" for example. Why limit yourself by making such a proclamation? Life continues to evolve, and there will be more great experiences. At least I hope so. So stop with the ever.


Sentences are continually started with um, actually or ironically. The usage is always incorrect and unnecessary. In the case of um, it just makes you sound dumb.



In regards to like, this is always ridiculous. I was like, Im like, it's like. come on people! You either are or you are not. Enough of this nonsense! Learn to speak!
You hit the nail on the head when you said that life is ever evolving.

Language is the same way, its ever evolving.

I remember my high school english teacher had a strict adherence to older forms of the English language. Still to this day, I don't say, "Thats a lot of" anything. "A lot" I was told is a plot of land of certain size. It shouldn't be used as a general statment of numerous amounts of anything.

Same goes for, "raising children". You don't raise children, you rear children. You raise fruits and vegetables.
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Old 09-26-2009, 08:37 PM
 
48,505 posts, read 96,514,062 times
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In the end often I have found that people who really can't speak are often very talented. What is accepted as speech varies so much with region. I remmeber when i wqas inh the service;I could tell what the guys from califonia and some parts of teh northeast were sayig ;they spoke so fast. Also the slang varied so much.I decided then that I loved the slower pace butter speech of teh guys from parts of alabama;sotu carolina and the georgia area around savannah and charelston. We use toi say that butter wouldn't melt in their mouths and the girls thought so too.I guess that is why so many great wrtiters come form the deep south;they don't say much very quickly but choose their words well to reflect what they really want to say.I'll never have that as i will linger with a Texas draw but that's fine by me.
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Old 09-26-2009, 11:48 PM
 
Location: Victoria TX
42,579 posts, read 86,604,351 times
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I think its perfectly fine for people to speak the same way as the style of the people they are speaking to. But people, for their own good, ought to know how to speak to educated people who are careful about their language, too, just in case they ever need to.
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Old 09-27-2009, 01:04 AM
 
Location: A Nation Possessed
25,281 posts, read 18,426,450 times
Reputation: 22129
[MOD CUT]

Quote:
Originally Posted by jtur88 View Post
I think its perfectly fine for people to speak the same way as the style of the people they are speaking to. But people, for their own good, ought to know how to speak to educated people who are careful about their language, too, just in case they ever need to.
I have embarrassed myself over the years a few times because of my tendency to mimic the speakers I converse with. I don't do it intentionally and generally don't notice it until it's obvious I'm doing it. I've always been pretty good at copying dialects and accents, and I've always been a big fan of them. So, quite often if I'm talking to someone from the south (for instance), after while I start to sound a bit like that. But sometimes people think you are making fun of them when you do that. That's not the case with me, but I understand how it could be taken that way. I once had a boss who was from New Zealand and I used to love to hear her speak. It’s sort of British-like, of course, but there is a certain sound to their A’s that has a strange bit of ‘R’ mixed in--it's a cool sound that we really don’t have in American English. Anyway, we spoke quite often and one day she asked why I was starting to "sound like her" when we spoke. I hadn't even noticed! I just sort of went red and explained my little quirk to her. It’s interesting how people can come from England or New Zealand and live in the states for years without loosing their accent. I think if I went to England or New Zealand, I wouldn’t sound American for long because of my copycat tendency with speech sounds.

To tie my walk in the clouds back to the OT, it’s not always clear what proper English is. If I’m in Louisiana, ‘proper’ English from say California might get me laughed at. Many people where I live now would probably have a hard time following ‘proper’ English from England or Standard ‘proper’ Scottish English. There really are many versions of ‘proper’ English. It’s completely region-dependent. I'm not talking about slang, I'm talking about what is considered good speech in different regions.

Last edited by Ibginnie; 10-08-2009 at 09:13 AM.. Reason: response to deleted post
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Old 09-27-2009, 01:29 AM
 
Location: Victoria TX
42,579 posts, read 86,604,351 times
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"Proper English" is simply the English that you would expect an education person would recognize as a mark of your own education. It is English that follows the standard rules of grammar and syntax (and spelling and punctuation in written form), regardless of what kind of accent you grew up using.
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Old 09-28-2009, 07:39 AM
 
776 posts, read 1,271,299 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by loose cannon View Post
I am very tired of the trend in language today where the words ever, actually, ironically, um, and of course like are so overused. It is to the point where the words have lost their true meanings.


First the word ever, as in best ever is just getting out of hand. Radio and TV ads have people using this phrase ad nauseum. "We have the best sandwiches ever" for example. Why limit yourself by making such a proclamation? Life continues to evolve, and there will be more great experiences. At least I hope so. So stop with the ever.


Sentences are continually started with um, actually or ironically. The usage is always incorrect and unnecessary. In the case of um, it just makes you sound dumb.



In regards to like, this is always ridiculous. I was like, Im like, it's like. come on people! You either are or you are not. Enough of this nonsense! Learn to speak!
The same could be said for written language. I often see passages riddled with mistakes such as the improper use of commas, quotation marks, apostrophes, capitalization and incomplete sentences.

But I don’t mind, as long as I understand the person’s point.
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Old 09-28-2009, 08:41 AM
 
Location: South of Maine
737 posts, read 1,031,810 times
Reputation: 799
Quote:
Originally Posted by monkey cabal View Post
The same could be said for written language. I often see passages riddled with mistakes such as the improper use of commas, quotation marks, apostrophes, capitalization and incomplete sentences.

But I don’t mind, as long as I understand the person’s point.
I agree! When we do it right, not only does the listener or reader get a clearer understanding of our words, but we do also. We refine or clarify our thought in our own mind, by expressing it.
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