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BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day!
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Subject: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: katlaughing Date: 04 Mar 08 - 02:14 PM http://nationalgrammarday.com/ Have fun! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: Amos Date: 04 Mar 08 - 02:22 PM http://nationalgrammarday.com/ and see also their awards for the worst grammar of the year. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: autolycus Date: 04 Mar 08 - 03:40 PM I'm afraid, Miss Kat, sweetheart, that I have to jib at your use of the word 'pedant' in the thread-title. A pedant gives more attention to details of language than is merited. Getting grammar correct is usually warranted, by contrast. IMHO (hence the caps), I think my point is, itself, not pedantic. (I'm doing my bit for the day, you understand). Ivor |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: katlaughing Date: 04 Mar 08 - 03:44 PM Oh, most assuredly, I do understand your point, Ivordarlin', however let us not wallow over long in the petit-points(sic) or minutiae of de'tales. Perhaps 'twould better had I used "Grammarians" to rhyme with "Librarians" but there are so many on here who self-describe as "Pedants," it seems a small thing to award them their own "day." Were it not for spell-checker, they might have all been pendants! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: autolycus Date: 04 Mar 08 - 03:58 PM Oh, I've got one of them. I have no idea what I mean. That's communication for you. Ivor |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: Rapparee Date: 04 Mar 08 - 04:06 PM Oh, goody! In the immoral words of the great Winston Churchill, "That is the kind of nonsense up with which I will not put." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: Bill D Date: 04 Mar 08 - 04:54 PM oh, my dear Rapaire! I DO believe Sir Winston actually said: "That is the |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: autolycus Date: 04 Mar 08 - 04:58 PM I'll be fascinated to know how you don't put with something not up on a thread. Ivor |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: Richard Bridge Date: 04 Mar 08 - 05:44 PM Immoral words? Do you mean "immortal"? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: Slag Date: 04 Mar 08 - 06:41 PM Hey, not bad fer a guy raised by wolfs. Way to go Lone Wolf! Pendulous! An' we got us a day wherewith we can shine. Down thru the anus of history we shall ever be grateful fur such a day as this one is. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: Stilly River Sage Date: 04 Mar 08 - 07:46 PM Okay. I've said it before. Those examples in the National Grammar Day site are ill-chosen and churlish. I find them objectionable. Why? Think about it. When Jay Leno does his headlines, he does it in good humor, and the mistakes amount to double entendres. The National Grammar Day mistake examples were mean spirited or grasping at straws. I understood the headline, and I didn't read it to mean the girl might have killed the survivors of the plane crash. And the legal ad was written by someone who wrote phonetically. He knew what he meant and he wrote under a strain so wasn't at his best. I'd also guess by the context and usage that English isn't his first language. There was nothing in that ad that was funny; a proof-reader could have helped but legal ads have to go exactly as they are submitted. I made the mistake of criticizing the writing skills of a couple of friends back in my college days. Friends who wrote letters. I was so smart. Guess what? They never wrote back. My loss, my stupidity. It was years later that a professor, one of the smartest guys I know, made the connection I needed to understand all along. We use LANGUAGE to communicate, and both of those examples could be understood by the reader, even if the word choice wasn't good. They sounded like what they meant. Language is to communicate, and GRAMMAR is simply "manners." It is the social convention that says "we prefer to do it this way." Yes, you can use the fancy little fork on the far outside of the huge array of flatware to eat your salad, or you can pick up a knife and pierce the leaves and eat it. One looks boorish and crude, but it gets the job done. Get it? So I laugh along with Jay Leno like everyone else, and I catch some blunders of my own. I'm dyslexic, I may come up with more than my share. Here is a photo, from Salladasburg, PA, the family graveyard. Which of you is going to step up to these grieving parents and ridicule their "grammar?" SRS, MA, English, 1999 rant off |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: katlaughing Date: 04 Mar 08 - 07:58 PM Maggie, understood, but to be fair, you do have to go look for those examples. They don't have them posted right on the front page. I was most uncomfortable with the legal notice as I am sure English was not their first language and I don't like making fun of that, either. If I remember, correctly, you came off a little "academically-handed" way back when you were new to Mudcat. I posted this thread, mostly for Wordsmyths and Mudder Pedants to have some fun, so I hope no one will take it personally. :-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: Bill D Date: 04 Mar 08 - 09:45 PM We have to distinguish between ignorance and stupidity. If someone can't learn, it is one thing...if they just refuse to try, it is quite another. I see nothing wrong with being sure a decent, reasonable standard is kept alive and noted in situations where it seems to be ignored & faltering. I do see a problem with trivial nit-picking over irrelevant issues with folks who have problems coping. Much of a culture's...or nation's... essence is embedded in its language, and dismissing the nuances of spelling & grammar because, 'like, you know what I'm sayin' anyway...' is a sad commentary on our educational system. So...I do have my moments when pedantry will bubble to the surface, but I will personally try to be selective about timing.....and continue to recommend things like clever spell-checkers for those who don't cope well with spelling naturally. rant, likewise, off.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: katlaughing Date: 04 Mar 08 - 10:44 PM I am sure most of us caught what the headline really meant, but a good copy editor would not have let it past, let alone a good headline writer/editor. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: Stilly River Sage Date: 04 Mar 08 - 11:56 PM Oh, I still pull the scholarly tone on occasion. And I've fought more than a few battles about people introducing fuzzy logic into an otherwise forward-moving discussion. Some of the folks who took that approach don't post much now, so the dust-ups aren't as often. I did get on a roll here, but it is one of the conundrums that English teachers have to wrestle with--teaching the students to communicate effectively and understand why they need the skill, without shutting down the desire to communicate because of the perceived judgement involved. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: katlaughing Date: 05 Mar 08 - 12:09 AM Ah, well, nothing wrong with that. At least you aren't afraid to teach them through showing them what's wrong or right as the case may be. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: freda underhill Date: 05 Mar 08 - 04:00 AM But is the case upper case or lower case? if it's an uppity case, well, it deserves to be put in it's place. If it's a lower case, well, is it lower because it's an upper trying to commune with it's lower, or is it a case of low self esteem? it could be a case of low participles, in which case it's a sad case. or a nut case. better go or you'll get on my case.... but just in case.... I feel it wise to point out that a pedant can be a hanging thing around your neck - without an "n" to it, it's a pain in the neck..... f.u. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: Bryn Pugh Date: 05 Mar 08 - 05:01 AM I am instigating The Pedants' Revolt (signed) Which Tyler |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: Slag Date: 05 Mar 08 - 06:09 AM They is revoltin' enough without you stirrin' 'em up. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: Backwoodsman Date: 05 Mar 08 - 07:59 AM Who's Jay Leno? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: katlaughing Date: 05 Mar 08 - 10:33 AM Late night talk show host Freda..LOL, as the case may be! Pedant alert...no apostrophe in possessive "its." Alert - off.**bg** |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: bobad Date: 05 Mar 08 - 10:43 AM Re."Pedant alert...no apostrophe in possessive "its." Alert - off.**bg**" In this case isn't "it's" a contraction of "it is" and not a possessive and the apostrophe replaces the "i"? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: Bill D Date: 05 Mar 08 - 12:12 PM "... if it'scorrect an uppity case, well, it deserves to be put in it'sincorrect place." who was that masked pedant? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: katlaughing Date: 05 Mar 08 - 12:51 PM bobad, not as used a couple of times in a previous posting which one I do not want to point out so as to save any red-faces.:-) Though, I do see it quite regularly on the Mudcat by various others. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: bobad Date: 05 Mar 08 - 12:53 PM Oh OK, I thought you were referring to the thread title - my mistake. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: GUEST,Which Tyler Date: 06 Mar 08 - 07:27 AM On with the revolt! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: kendall Date: 06 Mar 08 - 08:24 AM Bill, I didn't know that Churchill spoke in italics. I have two daughters, that bug me with their misuse of "I" and "ME". I have hammered on them for years, but they insist on doing it, when they know better. What bugs me more is, why do I give a damn? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: GUEST,Chicken Charlie Date: 06 Mar 08 - 09:07 AM Found this on an old Edison cylinder recorded by Epiphany Quimble and the Madhouse Four in 1908: Come all ye fair and tender pedants, Take warning how you proof our speech-- Someone my steal your prized thesaurus And hide it quite beyond your reach. Come all ye fair and tender pedants, Take warning how you parse our graphs; Someone may seize your dictionary And try to stuff it up your aphs. Take care you fair and tender pedants, And do not count apostrophes; Mock not our dangling participles, But let us write just as we please. Anyone know the chord progression? CC |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: Stilly River Sage Date: 06 Mar 08 - 10:21 AM Funny! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Oh, ye Pedants, it's your day! From: wysiwyg Date: 06 Mar 08 - 11:52 AM That skill of being able to read sense when non-sense is written comes in handy when reading Freecycle messages. Of course there's an incentive. ~S~ |
