Calling all pedants.
I love studying how it is that we as people communicate and frequently take pleasure in deconstructing the language use of texts I study. I would probably study comparative literature if I had the grammatical skill for it, but alas grammar was always my downfall in English classes.
Last week when I was back in the southland, I spent a good 15 minutes discussing the merits and drawbacks of being pedantic with a friend. She took exception to me lovingly telling her she was a bit of a pedant when she called me out for a particular bit of wordage in my thesis. Of course, we then proceeded to debate how neurotic one had to be in order to be a bit pedantic and the various benefits if you were in fact a pedant...which I think kind of proved my original point. She flipped me the bird when I pointed that and did not really appreciate that I didn't think it particularly derogatory since I wholly embrace my pedantic tendencies. But she followed it up by telling me how much she missed having intellectual debates with me.
I was reminded of this because I just spent the last 10 minutes trying to determine if there is a substantive difference between using the nouns distinction and contradistinction. Sometimes I wonder how I manage to get anything done at all.
Last week when I was back in the southland, I spent a good 15 minutes discussing the merits and drawbacks of being pedantic with a friend. She took exception to me lovingly telling her she was a bit of a pedant when she called me out for a particular bit of wordage in my thesis. Of course, we then proceeded to debate how neurotic one had to be in order to be a bit pedantic and the various benefits if you were in fact a pedant...which I think kind of proved my original point. She flipped me the bird when I pointed that and did not really appreciate that I didn't think it particularly derogatory since I wholly embrace my pedantic tendencies. But she followed it up by telling me how much she missed having intellectual debates with me.
I was reminded of this because I just spent the last 10 minutes trying to determine if there is a substantive difference between using the nouns distinction and contradistinction. Sometimes I wonder how I manage to get anything done at all.