Speaking Well. Grammar Lesson.

if people spell or type wrong i don't worry about it - it's not my business to judge them

after all, we're multi-national - should i be slammed for not being able to write perfect French or German?

if i really gave a monkeys about how pwople wrote English I'd join a forum all about the subject

[Timber Loftis]

Gotta love the inherently incorrect rules at the bottom. Oh, and someone should educate the author on the finer points of latin abbreviations, especially i.e. vs. e.g.

[edit] Ooooh, oooh, oooh - Mr. Carter! I got another oner that annoys me: the use of commas in a series. It is 1, 2, and 3. Not 1, 2 and 3. This way we understand "compound singular" combinations such as: "I had ham, eggs and chorizo, sausage, and biscuits and gravy."

[ 11-19-2002, 03:52 PM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

[Charean]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: [edit] Ooooh, oooh, oooh - Mr. Carter! I got another oner that annoys me: the use of commas in a series. It is 1, 2, and 3. Not 1, 2 and 3. This way we understand "compound singular" combinations such as: "I had ham, eggs and chorizo, sausage, and biscuits and gravy."

Man, that is a lot of food!!

My mother was a stickler for grammar and such; she is a writer. So are my brother and uncle. After being bashed about the head and shoulders to get it right, I can finally make mistakes that look intentional.

[Timber Loftis]

[quote]Originally posted by Charean:

Man, that is a lot of food!!

I'm a growing boy, you know. Actually, for me it would more accurately be vegetarian foods. Oh well. I just thought I'd show off the fact that I can spell chorizo.

[Heartless Butterscotch]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: [edit] Ooooh, oooh, oooh - Mr. Carter! I got another oner that annoys me: the use of commas in a series. It is 1, 2, and 3. Not 1, 2 and 3. This way we understand "compound singular" combinations such as: "I had ham, eggs and chorizo, sausage, and biscuits and gravy."

At the newspaper I work for we use only one comma in a series of three. Under AP style, a comma combined with a conjunction is redundant. However, I've never come across an example like the one you've mentioned. My guess is that two "ands" could still be properly used, albeit clumsily. I say this because there are other instances where conjunctions are used consecutively without the need of commas. I suppose it comes down to the type of writing style being used.

[Timber Loftis]

In one article I read, newspapers were cited as the trend-setter regarding the usage of one too few commas in a series. And, 2 schools of thought have thus developed. Obviously, no comma is needed for 1 and 2. But, for more than two it seems reasonable to use n-1 commas, where n is the number of items in the series. I have met some very smart people who refuse to see it my way on this, but I keep pulling up websites with a simple "comma in a series" search that overwhelmingly vote in favor of the usage is suggest. Here's the latest, one that I have never encountered before today:

http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/commas.htm

[Bardan the Slayer]

The funny thing is, before I studied linguistics I was more prone to be judgemental but now I see all of the "rules of grammar" for the arbitrary nonsense it is. The "rules" are nothing more than social conventions in most cases (or in the case of the split infinitive - ignorant people trying to sound authoritative). As long as a person follows the real rules of grammar and produces structurally acceptable, understandeable sentences, I couldn't care less.

Of course, from a sociolinguistic viewpoint, what is commonly termed 'accuracy' when writing is very highly valued and extremely important, so I can't afford to be too throwaway. Of course, it would be this way - sociolinguistics is after all the study of the way language and society interact, and if society sets arbitrary value judgements about a person based on their usage of 'to' vs. 'too', or 'their' vs. 'there', then from a sociolinguistic viewpoint, 'accurate grammar' is extremely important.

From a linguistic viewpoint? I couldn't care less if you split infinitives, misspell 'their', put apostrophes in the wrong places or whatever. That type of thing is mostly irrelevant (as long as it does not significantly warp the meaning of the utterance to a reader). As long as you get your point across and communicate effectively with the people you are addressing, good luck to you [img]smile.gif[/img]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: Gotta love the inherently incorrect rules at the bottom. Oh, and someone should educate the author on the finer points of latin abbreviations, especially i.e. vs. e.g. [edit] Ooooh, oooh, oooh - Mr. Carter! I got another oner that annoys me: the use of commas in a series. It is 1, 2, and 3. Not 1, 2 and 3. This way we understand "compound singular" combinations such as: "I had ham, eggs and chorizo, sausage, and biscuits and gravy."

Just for accuracies sake, it was Mr. Kotter

[Angelousss]

me fail english that's unpossible

[Timber Loftis]

Doh! Sorry, Mr. MagiK.

Oh, but while we're on *this particular* thread, let me point out it would be for accuracy's sake.

[ 11-19-2002, 05:33 PM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]