@Andrew: “Grammar nazi” is one of those concepts that needs to be hauled out behind the woodshed, beaten to a pulp with the consistency of jell-O, and then set on fire before being staked through the heart and buried beneath a crossroads.
There is nothing picky, “elitist”, or otherwise tyrannical about proper grammar.
Except English is the language where more exceptions are made about its usage than there are rules that follow it. We liberally borrow words & phrases from nearly every other language and use expressions and other jargon in such a way that both illuminate and obfuscate what we are trying to say at the same time. Translation is harder and trips more foreigners up than the grammar construction of a sentence. As long as the grammar doesn’t hinder comprehension, I’m not as bothered by a misused contraction as some others are.
James Nicoll.
“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary.”
I’ll grant the trivialization of nazi, but the damage has been done. Feminazi, soup nazi.
The concept, however, is a good one. The behavior described by ‘grammar nazi’ is indeed picky and elitist, not to mention often wrong. Sweetheart is not a grammar nazi; she’s obsessing over a triviality (and it’s a spelling triviality, not a grammar triviality), but she is not making a nuisance of herself over it as if it were the end of civilization, one more step toward reducing our communication to grunts.
Also there’s the fact that most grammar nazis tend to get het up over bullshit rules like ‘don’t end a sentence with a preposition’, ‘don’t split infinitives’, or ‘don’t use the passive voice’, which have been irrelevant to good writing since Anglo-Saxon times. (And grammar nazis usually don’t know what the passive voice is.)
I am frequently annoyed by typos and grammatical errors in fiction (few books nowadays are free of them) but I sigh and read on. There’s a webcomic that persistently uses constructions like ‘do it for Delta and I’; I pointed out the error once, was ignored, and now just wince and read on. I see it in the writing of people whose writing seems otherwise fine, so I think I’m going to have to accept it as an established variant.
There’s a difference between attacking someone for poor grammar in casual communication such as comments or forums, and expecting decent grammar in a published work like a book, comic, or poster. One is petty and annoying, the other is perfectly reasonable.
Foradain, that shows that the error is not due to ignorance but to carelessness. We all make typos, and even miss them when proofing because we know what the text is supposed to be. This is a failure in editing.
No, this is the Institute, where they laugh at you on their phone waiting system. This is not not due to ignorance or carelessness, this is completely intentional.
Thirded, and for extra creep factor: this might just be the beginning.
As I said earlier, the spa is just the “beta” version of Anasigma and the Institute. (No, I am not talking about Mrs. Narbon here.) Driving Sweetheart crazy with missing punctuation is the next step. Whoever’s in charge will keep adding the minor incongruities, bit by bit, until Sweetheart is screaming in a OCD-inspired frenzy. Then they will present themselves as a method of restoring “order” to her world. Once she’s fully brainwashed . . . , er, let’s say indoctrinated into Anasigma’s employ, she will be used to bring the rest of the team over on the grounds that it will do their jobs more efficiently.
Mr. Green does strike me as the patient sort, willing to use long term strategems after all.
There is a difference between formal writing and informal writing. Formal writing should be grammatically correct and understandable. Informal writing can be sloppy and use L33t or 🙂 When you know correct usage, incorrect usage can jar you. Too much knowledge can make you miserable which is why ignorance can be bliss. Wonderful as always eddurd
Recent analysis of the genetic profile of Britain indicates that while Anglo Saxon lingo jumped the Channel, apparently the Angles and Saxons didn’t, at least not in the numbers that would normally account for the language influence.
The fact is, the success of English as a world language comes from its informality. You can hash it horribly and still make yourself understood, which makes it ideal for trade.
My question…is this a ploy by the institute to drive their inmates FURTHER mad? After all, we know from diskworld the best way to irritate a witch is to have a painting hanging JUST off alighnemtt…
Rex Vivat: she doesn’t log out for the night because she’s obsessive. But how does the drone get to have dark circles under its eyes?
Incidentally, I’m dubious about claims that English is widespread because of inherent characteristics, like being understandable when mangled. It spread, like Latin or Arabic, because of empire. Plus American technical and cultural hegemony, particularly after WWII. It was around at the right places at the right times, like the QWERTY keyboard.
Also, Ritz: ‘There also seems to be an assumption that drawing attention to the rules is somehow akin to slaughtering others just for being different.’ No, it’s just rude. A proper response is ‘Who asked you?’ And as I said, grammar n…itpickers are often style-deaf or draw attention to nonexistent rules; e.g., ‘Also, nobody picked up on the fact that there are two independent clauses separated by a comma rather than a period or semicolon.’ That’s because there’s nothing wrong with it. This is not the sort of tacking-together of long and structurally independent sentences that gets excoriated as a comma splice. Nothing wrong with ‘It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity’ either. A semicolon is fine too, but it’s not mandatory.
Judging by the previous comments, people have decided that there are enough exceptions in English that there is no point to maintain the rules that the language does have. There also seems to be an assumption that drawing attention to the rules is somehow akin to slaughtering others just for being different.
Also, nobody picked up on the fact that there are two independent clauses separated by a comma rather than a period or semicolon.
Y’know, usually the comma-splice thing is only slightly less annoying to me than evil apostrophe’s, but this one didn’t even register. And looking back, I think I’m still okay with it. Maybe because they’re very short clauses with strong parallelism? Line break? I dunno.
Ahhh. I caught what you did there. “Evil apostrophe’s” with the possessive form instead of the plural “apostrophes.” They are so evil that they even show up in their nickname.
Eats, Shoots and Leaves went bezerk over the whole “it’s”/ “its” problem. Understandable, but a bit grammar nazi.
Not a grammar nazi, just a little anti-semantic
Sweetheart, don’t go native! You’e not a madwoman!
…yet.
You’re a horrible person.
*You’e a horrible person. :p
She’s not a madwoman, she’s a mad dog! Long as she doesn’t foam at the mouth she should be okay…
Fix it! Fix it! Fix it! Fix it! Fix it! Fix it! Fix it! Fix it!
Poor Sweetheart: Torn between the impulse to scratch an apostrophe in and not committing an act of vandalism, however well-intentioned.
Just wait until she’s introduced to the concept of bad kerning.
Isn’t Bad Kerning a town in Germany?
Ow…
Yes, it’s close to Bad Ems. But not quite as close as it should be.
*slow clap*
Bad kerning, or its result is called “keming”.
AUGH
“It’s.” The alternate title for “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.”
MUST . . . FIX . . . . KERNING
And the torture starts
@Andrew: “Grammar nazi” is one of those concepts that needs to be hauled out behind the woodshed, beaten to a pulp with the consistency of jell-O, and then set on fire before being staked through the heart and buried beneath a crossroads.
There is nothing picky, “elitist”, or otherwise tyrannical about proper grammar.
also, yesterday was the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The term “grammar nazi” trivializes what the Nazis actually *did*.
Except English is the language where more exceptions are made about its usage than there are rules that follow it. We liberally borrow words & phrases from nearly every other language and use expressions and other jargon in such a way that both illuminate and obfuscate what we are trying to say at the same time. Translation is harder and trips more foreigners up than the grammar construction of a sentence. As long as the grammar doesn’t hinder comprehension, I’m not as bothered by a misused contraction as some others are.
English does not borrow words from other languages. It mugs other languages in dark alleys and goes through their pockets for loose nouns.
(Wish I could remember who originally said that for proper attribution.)
James Nicoll.
“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary.”
What about Grammar Romans?
They can eunt domus.
(TUNE: “Come Back To Me” from On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, Burton Lane & Alan Jay Lerner)
Night is here, day is done …
Games of mind … have begun!
I’m upset … by this one
Apostrophe!
See, that word … isn’t right!
Keeps me up … all the night,
All because … of that slight
Apostrophe!
We all know … how it’s done …
A contraction has one, a possessive has none!
Drives me mad, like I had
O.C.D.!
In a trap, mind is held
By a word … that’s misspelled!
Now my brain starts to rot,
‘Cause of one little jot …
Stupid word hasn’t got
A-pos-tro-phe!
possibly posted by an apostrophe apostate
What would really bug me is that whoever laid out that poster design got the first “it’s” right!
Sweetheart said right it’s a typo not incorrect use of grammar.
I’ll grant the trivialization of nazi, but the damage has been done. Feminazi, soup nazi.
The concept, however, is a good one. The behavior described by ‘grammar nazi’ is indeed picky and elitist, not to mention often wrong. Sweetheart is not a grammar nazi; she’s obsessing over a triviality (and it’s a spelling triviality, not a grammar triviality), but she is not making a nuisance of herself over it as if it were the end of civilization, one more step toward reducing our communication to grunts.
Also there’s the fact that most grammar nazis tend to get het up over bullshit rules like ‘don’t end a sentence with a preposition’, ‘don’t split infinitives’, or ‘don’t use the passive voice’, which have been irrelevant to good writing since Anglo-Saxon times. (And grammar nazis usually don’t know what the passive voice is.)
I am frequently annoyed by typos and grammatical errors in fiction (few books nowadays are free of them) but I sigh and read on. There’s a webcomic that persistently uses constructions like ‘do it for Delta and I’; I pointed out the error once, was ignored, and now just wince and read on. I see it in the writing of people whose writing seems otherwise fine, so I think I’m going to have to accept it as an established variant.
There’s a difference between attacking someone for poor grammar in casual communication such as comments or forums, and expecting decent grammar in a published work like a book, comic, or poster. One is petty and annoying, the other is perfectly reasonable.
Foradain, that shows that the error is not due to ignorance but to carelessness. We all make typos, and even miss them when proofing because we know what the text is supposed to be. This is a failure in editing.
No, this is the Institute, where they laugh at you on their phone waiting system. This is not not due to ignorance or carelessness, this is completely intentional.
That’s my guess.
Thirded, and for extra creep factor: this might just be the beginning.
As I said earlier, the spa is just the “beta” version of Anasigma and the Institute. (No, I am not talking about Mrs. Narbon here.) Driving Sweetheart crazy with missing punctuation is the next step. Whoever’s in charge will keep adding the minor incongruities, bit by bit, until Sweetheart is screaming in a OCD-inspired frenzy. Then they will present themselves as a method of restoring “order” to her world. Once she’s fully brainwashed . . . , er, let’s say indoctrinated into Anasigma’s employ, she will be used to bring the rest of the team over on the grounds that it will do their jobs more efficiently.
Mr. Green does strike me as the patient sort, willing to use long term strategems after all.
There is a difference between formal writing and informal writing. Formal writing should be grammatically correct and understandable. Informal writing can be sloppy and use L33t or 🙂 When you know correct usage, incorrect usage can jar you. Too much knowledge can make you miserable which is why ignorance can be bliss. Wonderful as always eddurd
Thanks for the compliment, but I wish you hadn’t put it immediately after the “ignorance is bliss” comment.
Funny you should mention l33t, since with that particular writing style it’s the other way around: it’s jarring unless you’re very familiar with it.
1t d03sn’t m4tt3r 1f j00 kn0w c0rr3ct gr4mm4r us4g3 0r n0t, 1f j00 try 2 r34d t3xt l13k d1z 4 t00 l0ng w1th0ut b31n’ us3d 2 1t j00’LL 3nd up w1th @ h34d4ch3.
|\| d47’2 |\|07 3\/3|\| 74|<1|\|' 1|\|70 4cc0|_||\|7 "X7r3|\/|3 |_337"…
The real problem is people trying to apply rules to the unruly language that is english. It really is a mucked up language.
Recent analysis of the genetic profile of Britain indicates that while Anglo Saxon lingo jumped the Channel, apparently the Angles and Saxons didn’t, at least not in the numbers that would normally account for the language influence.
The fact is, the success of English as a world language comes from its informality. You can hash it horribly and still make yourself understood, which makes it ideal for trade.
My question…is this a ploy by the institute to drive their inmates FURTHER mad? After all, we know from diskworld the best way to irritate a witch is to have a painting hanging JUST off alighnemtt…
I’m seconding what Rex said — this is totally intentional.
*Can* the bot see in the dark well enough to read a poster?
And why doesn’t she just log out for the night?
Rex Vivat: she doesn’t log out for the night because she’s obsessive. But how does the drone get to have dark circles under its eyes?
Incidentally, I’m dubious about claims that English is widespread because of inherent characteristics, like being understandable when mangled. It spread, like Latin or Arabic, because of empire. Plus American technical and cultural hegemony, particularly after WWII. It was around at the right places at the right times, like the QWERTY keyboard.
Also, Ritz: ‘There also seems to be an assumption that drawing attention to the rules is somehow akin to slaughtering others just for being different.’ No, it’s just rude. A proper response is ‘Who asked you?’ And as I said, grammar n…itpickers are often style-deaf or draw attention to nonexistent rules; e.g., ‘Also, nobody picked up on the fact that there are two independent clauses separated by a comma rather than a period or semicolon.’ That’s because there’s nothing wrong with it. This is not the sort of tacking-together of long and structurally independent sentences that gets excoriated as a comma splice. Nothing wrong with ‘It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity’ either. A semicolon is fine too, but it’s not mandatory.
Rex, that was gonna be my question. Sweetheart, just log out and go to sleep. Or sneak out and look around.
Nobody’s commenting on “it’s not a journey, it’s a destination”, though?
I wonder if the format just invokes everyone’s TL;DR reflexes…
How ’bout if it were “Sanity: Getting There is Half the Fun?”
The only destination we’re all heading for is the big adios, so sanity must mean some sort of brain death.
Judging by the previous comments, people have decided that there are enough exceptions in English that there is no point to maintain the rules that the language does have. There also seems to be an assumption that drawing attention to the rules is somehow akin to slaughtering others just for being different.
Also, nobody picked up on the fact that there are two independent clauses separated by a comma rather than a period or semicolon.
Y’know, usually the comma-splice thing is only slightly less annoying to me than evil apostrophe’s, but this one didn’t even register. And looking back, I think I’m still okay with it. Maybe because they’re very short clauses with strong parallelism? Line break? I dunno.
Ahhh. I caught what you did there. “Evil apostrophe’s” with the possessive form instead of the plural “apostrophes.” They are so evil that they even show up in their nickname.
It’s been two solid minutes and i still can’t stop laughing!
i so needed this!
wait, no one is going to reference ANTONIO SMITH, Forensic Linguist?
I thought about it, but I don’t like shouting, and all-caps is the accepted way to write his name.
I wonder how she felt about the All Your Base meme that was going around years ago.
Well, I noticed it reverses the “traditional wisdom”, but this is the Evil Government Madness Warehouse, so I wasn’t that surprised.
Whoops, my last was meant for Jay. Broken reply function…. (At least it’s not as ambitiously bad as the Minecraft forums….)
Sweetheart no doubt refuses to take the poster down because it would be rude.