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Perhaps I'm not effectively conveying my thought process, and I should refer to latest edition of Elements of Style. My point is that just because you deem one way of speaking or writing as "correct", doesn't mean that everybody should share in your methodology. If the purpose of spoken language is only to convey a meaning, then it makes no difference how you do it.
If I'm talking with a friend casually, and he throws out a series of double negatives while ending his sentence in a preposition, I'm not going to call him out if my human mind was able to interpret his intended meaning. I may ask for clarification if I didn't understand something, but by the end of the conversation his meaning is conveyed. Conversations don't exist in only words, rather in a situational context. Somebody can be verbally telling me one thing while their body language is saying the absolute opposite, and the meaning can still be interpreted.
All of you who argue that you don't need to speak or write correctly as an average Joe, should have been so severely failed by your English teachers until it became second nature to you to speak, spell and write within the boundaries of proper English - without giving it a thought. Alternatively, you could remain at the elementary school level, perpetually chasing a decent job like a dog and never making it.
The fact that so many people think nothing of legitimizing trash English is an indication of how much garbage this culture breeds and attracts.
If so many foreigners can end up speaking and writing in proper English, those of you born and raised in English-speaking countries should be able to do that too without trying to convince others that conveying meaning is all that matters when it comes to language.
As they say: the difference between the ignorants of yesterday and the ignorants of today is that the ignorants of today are much more aggressive and arrogant. They demand their rights loud and clear just like all other interest groups: the rights of the stupid to stay stupid!!
And yes the incessant use of "like" and "you know" by younger generations is so irritating and ugly that it often begs for b**ch slapping.
I can't think of people more immature and unprofessional than those who say "Like" one hundred times a day. I see it at all levels from students to people higher up on the corporate ladder.
It should literally be outlawed; or at least, the abusers should be shamed just like in the good ol' days!
Nothing short of such measures would do with this nasty epidemic.
Not in a million years would I hire someone who sprinkled their speech with "like"-s, regardless of how phenomenal the accomplishments on their CV sounded.
To me, the two most terribly used and abused words in the English (well...American-English) language are:
"FREE"
and
"CHOICE" (and all of its derivations such as "CHOOSE", etc).
It is exactly because these are perfectly correct words, linguistically speaking, that few notice the cultural abuses they undergo, day in and day out. Everything is NOT a personal choice because choices don't happen in a geographic, historical, economic, ecologic and social vacuum.
TV news anchors and reality show hosts abuse 'officially.'
"It is officially 46 degrees." There is no ceremony or notarization taking place, of course, nor is an official presiding over the measurement.
But it IS the official temperature, an official does preside over it. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, under the authority of the Department of Commerce. If they say it's official, it is the temperature for that point in time that is recorded in the ongoing climatological data for the city, as maintained by authorities designated to do so, who make that temperature reading publicly available. As opposed to the temperature recorded on the bank thermometer across the street. Along with wind-speed and direction, dew point, measured rainfall, etc.
The National Weather Service has designated an "official" location, usually at the airport, and recognized "official" personnel responsible for the measuring equipment and recording of the data. These records are kept according to international standards, and nations who keep such records do so by international treaty. That's how we know there is global warming.
Here is a map of the "official" sites, and if you hover on each one, you can see the "official" data as of the last reading.
"Seen" tops my list. If I have to hear one more person say, "I seen a movie/dog/flying saucer/moon/alien last night," I'm going to blow a gasket.
I mentally correct people's grammar as they speak to me; I just can't help it. It is extremely annoying to me that people will not take the time to learn proper and correct English!
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