Grammar and spelling police

[Lord Bracknell]

Every time someone opens their mouth they change the language we speak

I don't think Noam Chomsky would agree. In fact, I'm certain that he wouldn't.

 

[Brovion]

I'm somewhere between the two. I totally accept that language evolves whether we like it or not: today's standard expressions are yesterday's 'dreadful Americanisms'. I don't give a toss about split infinitives (which people only complain about because one physically can't do it in Latin or French), starting sentences with 'And' or 'But' and finishing them with prepositions. I am mildly irritated by the people who say 'could of' and should of' as that isn't misspelling or bad grammar but ignorance of the actual meaning of basic words such as 'of' and 'have'.

At the end of the day language is all about communication; we're all trying to get our ideas over and in the same way that all English speakers can understand 'BBC English' but struggle with heavy regional dialects so we find it easier to understand 'well written' English as opposed to a sentence full of the latest up-to-the-minute street slang and constructed in a modern idiom. "Yeah, well wicked bruv innit?" might have fallen into that category a few years ago but I'm sure most of us, despite the FLAGRANT breaches of the rules, would now recognise that as "Yes it's quite good old chum isn't it?" Thus the language has evolved.


Personally as a general rule I have found that the people who write 'correctly' (i.e using the perceived current conventions on grammar, spelling and punctuation) tend to be better at getting their ideas over, can argue coherently, and have given their opinions some thought. On the other hand the 'could of / should of' brigade have already demonstrated that they're not that bright and their opinions tend to be less nuanced, more polarised and more easily ignored. Does that make me a snobby anal twat all too ready to dismiss someone's opinion just because they struggled at school? Possibly. But I don't give a shit.

 

[Simster]

It does for a noun, but not for a pronoun.

The eight cases are...

Pronoun  Possessive adjective   Possessive pronoun
Me         My                           Mine
You        Your                         Yours
He         His                          His
She        Her                          Hers
We         Our                          Ours
It         Its                          Its (hardly ever used)
They       Their                        Theirs
Who        Whose                        Whose (hardly ever used)

Good man Alan.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

On the other hand the 'could of / should of' brigade have already demonstrated that they're not that bright and their opinions tend to be less nuanced, more polarised and more easily ignored. Does that make me a snobby anal twat all too ready to dismiss someone's opinion just because they struggled at school? Possibly. But I don't give a shit.

Beautifully put. Gold star for Brovian.

 

[SULLY COULDNT SHOOT]

I don't think Noam Chomsky would agree. In fact, I'm certain that he wouldn't.

You are right but then again Noam Chomsky has been out of the forefront of Linguistics for the past twenty years. TGG is now de rigeur. Chomsky is a little more reliable in the political sphere.

 

[Brian Munich]

i thinK yoU alL neeD tO geT a lifE inniT...