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Old 07-04-2009, 09:03 PM
 
Location: A Nation Possessed
25,713 posts, read 18,788,778 times
Reputation: 22562

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Havik View Post
I think that anyone should be allowed to speak how they want.
Let's say I decide to only speak the northern island dialect of Gaelic and you decide to speak Xhosa. Those are great languages, but isn't there a bit of a problem if we want to communicate? The same effect would be realized if your form of English was so different from mine that we couldn't understand one another. So we have 350,000,000 English speakers speaking the way they want? I recall going to southern Louisiana in my teen years. I hardly understood a word of the 'Cajun English' that I heard. It was kind of cool, but it didn't do much for communication. So what if we had each region of the US speaking away from the norm that far. Wouldn't that sort of defeat the purpose of having English as our 'lingua franca'? I have no problem with people 'speaking how they want.' But at the heart of the matter is the question of what language is for. Guess we could use Spanish as a backup. Then we could all speak our new form of English that nobody understands... and speak Spanish when we wanted to communicate.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Havik View Post
The technical term for his way of english is Iambic Pentameter. It' basicallyy taking english words and mixing the Italian language to make it sound origional. Besides, he stole most of his plays.
Meter in poetry is not language specific and iambic pentameter is just one of many meters. English sonnets have a different overall form than Italian sonnets. I don't recall seeing much Italian language mixed with English in Shakespeare sonnets. It was post Middle English early modern English.
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Old 07-04-2009, 11:06 PM
 
1,700 posts, read 3,423,872 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Havik View Post
we use Green because of the colour of plant leaves, which recycle the CO2 gases (which are greenhouse gases which in turn traps sun radiation which makes global warming). So I think that people should be able to express their opinions and terms by however language they want. It's more diverse and unique. The whole "proper english" thing is getting pretty boring.
OK so when the surgeon who's taking care of you calls my Dept and expresses what he wants in his own way and you end up with a chest tube instead of a nephrostomy let me know how that works out OK? We'll see how unique you think it is then.
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Old 07-05-2009, 10:02 AM
 
822 posts, read 2,046,676 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Havik View Post
we use Green because of the colour of plant leaves, which recycle the CO2 gases (which are greenhouse gases which in turn traps sun radiation which makes global warming). So I think that people should be able to express their opinions and terms by however language they want. It's more diverse and unique. The whole "proper english" thing is getting pretty boring.
If and when we finally stamp out all these evil greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, how green do you think it will be then?
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Old 07-05-2009, 10:33 AM
 
18,717 posts, read 33,380,506 times
Reputation: 37274
Regarding "axed" for "asked," I've seen it to be strictly a black speaking, even if otherwise well spoken. I've wondered if there's something in original African languges that causes that, as the many Africans I work with also say that.
I think every generation or group likes to use its own jargon, as a binding thing. I know the first time "ripped off" came out of my mouth without plan, I was appalled. I really didn't want to pick up the jargon of my times.
My psychiatric hospital has signs printed up to put on the locked doors that say, "Split risk," meaning a patient is inside who is likely to try and bolt the door and escape. I venture that no one outside of that jargon group knows what "split risk" means, but no one wants to say "escape" because it connotes a prison. I wince every time I see those stupid signs. My own younger co-workers don't know why it says "split."
If someone uses generational jargon to sound cool, they'd better be really good at it, otherwise it's hilarious.
I have a pet peeve, when people who are paid to speak and spell well aren't good at it. Misspelled, grammatically incorrect news readers and news crawls worry me- if they're not careful with that, what else is being done in a sloppy way? Hey, CNN, the island is Cyprus, not Cypress. Etc.
Having the experience and mind of a proofreader and copyeditor is a daily heartbreak.
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Old 07-05-2009, 11:13 AM
 
Location: Victoria TX
42,554 posts, read 86,954,125 times
Reputation: 36644
Linguistics and Grammar are very poorly understood by the rank and file of people who use language.

To be very brief, Grammar falls into two categories---DEscriptive and PREscriptive. Every language must hava a descriptive grammar in order to be comprehensible. Prescriptive grammar arises when educated elites analyze the descriptive grammar, and then try to lock it into place.

"I ain't got none" is perfectly acceptable according to descriptive grammar of English. Subject/auxiliary negative contraction/verb/object. But it flies in the face of prescriptive grammar, which has tried to codify the use of the language according to discrete sets of rules.

"Nome sane" is grammatical, but highly contracted and perfectly well understood from "Do you know what I am saying?" which itself grammatically sound. Even J D Salinger in the 1940's quoted a character as saying "Jeat chet?", understood to mean "Did you eat yet?"

But those are not the critical issues. What is happening in America is that an entirely new vocabulary is being created, substituting words that previously meant something totally different or that did not exist at all. A reasonable person has no way of understanding the meaning of these words, which places them in a higher category of incomprehensibility than 'nome sane' and 'jeat chet'.
---------------

Regarding BrightDog's wonderful "split risk", I suspect the reason for that is so the patient himself (and his visitors) will remain blissfully unaware that he is regarded as a potential escapee, which is a perfectly justifiable PR ploy. It's a "secret code" to keep outsiders from understanding what is happening in the inner workings of the institution. I recall another one. At Disney World, if a child vomits, the clean-up crew is called to a "Protein spill", instead of saying in public earshot "some kid just barfed". By he way, my all time favorite euphemism for that came from Alf---"Driving the porcelain bus".

Last edited by jtur88; 07-05-2009 at 11:21 AM..
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Old 07-05-2009, 06:34 PM
 
20,187 posts, read 23,850,642 times
Reputation: 9283
I just heard someone say in their advertising on television "This ain't no vacation"... what is wrong with people no taking the time to correct their grammar...
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Old 07-05-2009, 07:24 PM
 
Location: A Nation Possessed
25,713 posts, read 18,788,778 times
Reputation: 22562
Quote:
Originally Posted by evilnewbie View Post
I just heard someone say in their advertising on television "This ain't no vacation"... what is wrong with people no taking the time to correct their grammar...

I don't know. What is wrong with people no taking the time to correct their grammar? ... glass houses...
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Old 07-05-2009, 07:35 PM
 
20,187 posts, read 23,850,642 times
Reputation: 9283
lol... I thought I typed in a T... oppss... however, I doubt the writers knew of the the error in their ads... its THEIR job.... this however is not my job and I am no"t" as careful...
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Old 07-06-2009, 02:10 AM
 
3,536 posts, read 5,906,380 times
Reputation: 834
Quote:
Originally Posted by evilnewbie View Post
lol... I thought I typed in a T... oppss... however, I doubt the writers knew of the the error in their ads... its THEIR job.... this however is not my job and I am no"t" as careful...
Copywriters actually have a great grasp of English. I think that they did it to convey a laid back mentality.
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Old 07-06-2009, 03:33 AM
 
1,718 posts, read 2,299,055 times
Reputation: 613
Quote:
Originally Posted by sickofnyc99 View Post
I work in an OR, a professional environment. Other staff members (who are professionals) in my opinion do not speak correctly. Substituting "axed" for "asked" and taking "l"s completely out of words. Now I'm from New York so we speak a little differently to begin with but this is a little far. The issue is everyone seems OK with it. Is this being allowed at schools? Opinions please.
I agree that the English language is suffereing but you use a real poor example. 'Axed' is, in fact, the correct word. It is just pronounced differently. Its an accent.

I have a much bigger problem with things such as, "I'm doing good". Doing is a verb. Good is a pronoun. That phrase should be, "I'm doing well". I could go on and on but I think you get the point.

- Reel
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