Just... no.
Y'know, baby seals are cute and all, but what we really need to be focusing on is SAVING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE!
Ahem.
But I'll get to that in a minute - first, some good news. It appears that three LOTR actors have now been approached about being in the Hobbit: Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, and Viggo Mortensen. Eee! The only one I've heard is officially ( Read more... )
Ahem.
But I'll get to that in a minute - first, some good news. It appears that three LOTR actors have now been approached about being in the Hobbit: Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, and Viggo Mortensen. Eee! The only one I've heard is officially ( Read more... )
One person has finally responded who's in agreement with the author. Basically, he thinks that everyone who sees themself as a "guardian of grammar" just likes the sense of power and superiority and object to anyone who doesn't use the language "as they intended". And, according to him, those grammar snobs will soon find themselves left very alone, grasping desperately to their archaic rules as the tides of language sweep on without them... or something. He really thinks we should just take more of an observational approach to language - pretty much, there's no way you can beat 'em (or teach them all) so you should just go along with it, instead of insisting that there are "right" ways.
Um.
Yeah, you need to change with the times, but that doesn't mean that language should turn into complete anarchy. I mean... does he really think there's no use for editors? Because there's no use in correcting people, so you should just accept their mistakes as developments in the language? Maybe he'd like to go back to a state of having no standardized spellings, so we can all just invent new ways to spell things when we don't feel like using the right ones! 'Cause, you know, that made communication so much easier.
I mean, seriously, yes, in many cases it's easy to tell that sign makers and such intended quotation marks for emphasis instead of sarcasm or direct quoting. But... when he claims that people who pretend it's confusing are just being deliberately obtuse... Has he even thought this through?! There are just so many cases where it'd be pretty much entirely impossible to figure out whether a person was being sarcastic or not. AUGH!
Heh. *slightly sheepish* Really, I'm rather surprised by how upset I get about this. I mean, I was cleaning, and just kinda walking around fuming, and I suddenly realized... I was getting really mad about punctuation. Yes, this is what I get worked up about. *headdesk* The thing is, practically no one I know in RL would understand at all what the big deal is, so I sometimes find myself just bursting with the need to rant over the IDIOCY of it all, but knowing everyone around me is far more likely to give me odd looks than sympathy. ;P ('course Nef knows what I'm like, but even the rest of the family'd be a bit bewildered over how worked up I can get ;) )
LOL, I did manage to get some work done on my story today. Still at my usual slooooow pace, but I'm hoping to have it done before too long. Nice thing is, I've pretty much got the set-up and essential plot development in place now, so for the rest of the story it's mostly a matter of how much of various aspects I feel like doing before I wrap things up. We shall see...
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And, according to him, those grammar snobs will soon find themselves left very alone, grasping desperately to their archaic rules as the tides of language sweep on without them... or something.
Er...well, okay, on the one hand, I see his point. If there were still people desperately hanging on to the use of capitals for nearly ever abstract noun, or utterly archaic spellings, that would be rather pitiful. But...oh, my, taking the "observational" approach to language would certainly result in anarchy.
Besides, wouldn't that necessitate everyone following the sweep of the less informed and the incorrect? O.o What would be taught in schools then? Grammar is ARTISTIC EXPRESSION, dear children, so sprinkle your commas, flourish your apostrophes, brandish your semi-colons, and awaken the dawn of a new era in the English language! *sounds trumpets*
Actually, that reminds me...I did go to public school for first grade, ya know. And we were supposed to keep journals in class. I was a perfectionist even then, and it drove me crazy that, whenever I asked my teacher "How do you spell such-and-such?" she would respond, "Spell it how you think!" I know, on the one hand, that she was trying to teach us the actual process of writing, and to express ourselves on paper without bogging ourselves down or distracting ourselves with spelling (because we did have a time and place for spelling too), but at the same time...I remember being indescribably frustrated by it. :P (It still kinda makes me go GWAH to think about it.)
LOL! *pats* Well, I understand how easy it is to get worked up about things like this. (Reminds me of how worked up I got some time back about what some people call "Art." Yes, I get worked up about grammar...but I get even more hysterical about "Art" and the kinds of books which end up in "the Canon." *tears hair*) Anyway, 'tis the good thing about the internets! There is a place for every rant. ;)
By the way, and completely randomly...did I ever tell you about the sign we once saw advertising a buy-one-get-one-free sale on Altoids?
Buy one for a Fiend!
(Which, at first, I wondered if it had been done purposefully, as it could possibly be considered cruel and unusual treatment to offer someone an Altoid, since they are "curiously strong" and all of that...but it was an honest-to-goodness typo. :D)
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Exactly. Forget grammar for a second, let's talk science - anyone ever heard of the second law of thermodynamics? Without some kind of intervention and organization, language would dissolve into utter chaos. Hehe, to quote Sir Author Stanley Eddington completely out of context: "Well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation." *bg*
He, yeah, there's a place for artistic expression and deliberate breaking of proper rules of grammar... but really, best to know the rules and why you're breaking them first.
Gah, man, that would've driven me SO crazy! Don't refuse to tell a perfectionist how to spell a word for a school paper, please! You make their head a splode! ;P
That Altoids advertisement... BWAHAHA! Hmm, that's what you get when you don't pay your editor... *eg*
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