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Grammar Gripes and Other Psycholinguistic Squawkings

Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by Baraka_Guru, Aug 6, 2011.

Page 15 of 25
  1. Phi Eyed

    Phi Eyed Getting Tilted

    Location:
    Ramsdale
    In my meager attempt to submit two posts per day to gain access to the more dirtier materials, which hardly EVER bother me, I had responded to this thread. I am not losing much sleep over whether someone says "foot" when they really are referring to more than one of those. I cannot come up with any other reason to modify the proper pluralization of the Queen's English, other than laziness. Linguistic laziness, not personal lifestyle laziness. I'm not judging any class or creed. It is easier to utter "foot" and probably requires more muscles to make the "eeee" sound.
    That's all. :)
     
    Phi Eyed, Feb 25, 2012
    #281
    • Like Like x 1
  2. cynthetiq

    cynthetiq Administrator Staff Member Donor

    Location:
    New York City
    site plug: :) you could also become a donor...
     
    cynthetiq, Feb 25, 2012
    #282
    • Like Like x 1
  3. Avestruz

    Avestruz Vertical

    Location:
    Montreal
    I didn't even notice your location until I read this and now feel a bit daft over my "UK people can be so rude about class" (sob...sniff) waffle back there. I have a bad habit of assuming everybody on the internet is American.

    I don't know why Britain isn't just completely metric now anyway, but that's another thread.

    This is probably the only thread that's likely to keep me over two posts today too, and here I am, so fair play.
     
    Avestruz, Feb 25, 2012
    #283
  4. Phi Eyed

    Phi Eyed Getting Tilted

    Location:
    Ramsdale
    I had to laugh today when a friend proudly told me that her 13 year old son is taller than her. He is now five FOOT!

    Okay. You win. I concede. But I still ain't gonna say "foot' when I mean 'feet', irregardless.

    p.s. Ramsdale is not my location, but a reference from the Nabokov classic. I isn't from England. I is from de great you ess of a.

    I'm going to follow you now.
    --- merged: Feb 26, 2012 3:05 AM ---
    How does one donate anonymously? If there is a way to do that, I'd be happy to.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 4, 2012
    Phi Eyed, Feb 25, 2012
    #284
    • Like Like x 1
  5. Zen

    Zen Very Tilted

    Location:
    London
    Hi Phi Eyed :) I've never seen "!!DONATOR!!" after anyone's name. I reckon 'anonymous' is the default, though that's only rumour unless confirmed by cynthetiq, the_jazz or other admins.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 4, 2012
    Zen, Feb 25, 2012
    #285
  6. cynthetiq

    cynthetiq Administrator Staff Member Donor

    Location:
    New York City
    Nope only person who gets to know the name is me. Even then, I don't get to know which account made the donation unless they tell me. I usually ask and a few have just declined to say which I respect.
     
    cynthetiq, Feb 26, 2012
    #286
  7. Avestruz

    Avestruz Vertical

    Location:
    Montreal
    I'm pretty amused that I just assumed this fictional place was an actual British town, when it would have taken about two seconds to type it into The Great Google and not look like a numpty. But I guess the name does sound pretty English.

    Lolita is in the increasingly large stack of books that I mean to read but will never get through at my present rate of two books per year. Must try harder.
     
    Avestruz, Feb 26, 2012
    #287
  8. DAKA

    DAKA DOING VERY NICELY, THANK YOU

    Location:
    150 miles North of SOUTHERNMOST POINT IN THE US
    How about, Have a gut day (who says that?) ...and Valentimes day
     
    DAKA, Feb 26, 2012
    #288
  9. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    I know, lack of punctuation and capitalization has covered.
    How about lack of appropriate spaces or breaks?

    It all blurs together otherwise, making it much harder to read.
     
    rogue49, Feb 26, 2012
    #289
    • Like Like x 3
  10. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    Ah, yes. This could be a combination of substantive and typesetting issues.

    Substantively, paragraph breaks help organize text into manageable units of meaning. Sometimes I see them go on for too long; however, I also see some that are too short. (It's often but not always a cheap fiction trick to use a single sentence as a paragraph for "effect," even when that sentence would best belong to the preceding paragraph.)

    Typesetting issues can be annoying. I'm always eliminating double spaces between sentences. They're unnecessary except perhaps if you're using an old typewriter.

    Also, I can't stand books whose paragraphs are typeset like websites: a line space between paragraphs with no indentation. In books, I call these line spaces "editorial breaks," which refers to the use of a line space to suggest a shift/break in the narrative, whether it be a shift in time, scene, perspective, topic, or something else. To have these kinds of spaces between each and every paragraph throughout the entire book is annoying because it's jarring.

    Books that are also typeset in a sans-serif font annoy me too. It's a pain to read that over great length.

    Nothing screams, "I'M SELF-PUBLISHED!" more than books typeset in sans-serif and paragraphs blocks separated by line spaces.
     
    Baraka_Guru, Feb 26, 2012
    #290
  11. Avestruz

    Avestruz Vertical

    Location:
    Montreal
    This reminds me of the BBC News website. Their stories often consist of one-sentence paragraphs, which look just fine on the page layout that they have and seem to read well there too. But if you have to quote one of their news stories on a message board that has a space/column for text that's wider than maybe 10-12 words, it looks completely ludicrous and feels like it reads quite poorly. It's funny how the layout can have that effect for me.
     
    Avestruz, Feb 26, 2012
    #291
  12. Lindy

    Lindy Moderator Staff Member

    Location:
    Nebraska
    ESPECIALLY WHEN WRITTEN IN ALL UPPER CASE, LIKE MANY LISTING DESCRIPTIONS ON EBAY, WRITTEN BY A BUNCH OF SHIFTLESS BASTARDS.
    I think that the ascenders and descenders make it easier to scan quickly. All caps is a descent to hell, letterally speaking.;)

    Lindy
     
    Lindy, Feb 27, 2012
    #292
  13. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    itsveryrareformetoreplytosomethinginallcapslikethathoweverithinkthenexttimeillreplylikethiswhatdoyouthinkpersonallybothareissuesofreadabilityandyettheyarefordifferentreasonseitherwayoneisunintentinoallydifficultwhiletheotherisintentionalbutidontcarereallyitsnotmyproblem
     
    Baraka_Guru, Feb 27, 2012
    #293
    • Like Like x 3
  14. Charlatan

    Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

    Location:
    Temasek
    Ahhhhhhhhhh! You guys are giving me a headache!
     
    Charlatan, Feb 27, 2012
    #294
    • Like Like x 2
  15. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    Talk about run-on sentences...

    But hey, thanks for my new strong password. ;)
     
    rogue49, Mar 3, 2012
    #295
    • Like Like x 2
  16. grumpyolddude

    grumpyolddude Very Tilted

    Location:
    Metro Detroit, Michigan, USA
    No caps or numbers. Password invalid.
     
    grumpyolddude, Mar 3, 2012
    #296
    • Like Like x 3
  17. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    Only if the damn password app makes me.
    Otherwise it would be a very strong one for the system to break. (should take a bit of time...)

    <---- Geek

    Sorry all for the geek break, go back to your grammer gripes.

    /or does this go under Psycholinguistic Squawkings?...
     
    rogue49, Mar 3, 2012
    #297
  18. Lindy

    Lindy Moderator Staff Member

    Location:
    Nebraska
    The lack of caps somewhat reminds me of a roachboy post, but Baraka_Guru's post offers significantly greater clarity and ease of understanding.;)

    Lindy
     
    Lindy, Mar 6, 2012
    #298
  19. Lindy

    Lindy Moderator Staff Member

    Location:
    Nebraska
    People saying "I'm waiting for my tax return" when they are waiting for their income tax refund. I've heard this several times in the last couple of weeks.

    Lindy
     
    Lindy, Mar 7, 2012
    #299
  20. Zen

    Zen Very Tilted

    Location:
    London
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2012
    Zen, Mar 12, 2012
    #300
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