PriusChat "Rules of Style"

Anything about shorter posts that we will reed. I gotted to just the first couple of the lines in you're rulez and I gotted sick for readin too mutch and thoughted I would just asked you if yooos thinks wee can makes a rule about makesing shortener postes?

 

I'm afraid to write anything now. It is like my old English teacher is looking over my shoulder. I guess saying, "I aint got no", won't work anymore. Me go now.

 

Good grief.

I know your post is in jest, but you've just roused the Spirit of Alnilam with your incantation...

 

I've always said it. Life's too short for grammar.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(syclone @ Nov 8 2006, 09:59 AM) [snapback]345434[/snapback]</div>

Alnilam is the name of the Priuschat poster that wanders around Priuschat threads correcting the spelling and grammar of other posters.

Most recently spotted correcting the metering on the limerick thread.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(syclone @ Nov 8 2006, 08:29 AM) [snapback]345386[/snapback]</div>

Above all this you should note
Limericks are totally verbote
They are not classy
They really are trashy
You'll wish they never were wrote

 

Mwaahaaaahaaaa....

....former English teacher here....

Mwaaahaaahaaaaa....

As long as I "get the point" when someone posts, I won't take a "sharp" position on spelling and gramma...oops...grammar.....

There once was a poster at Prius
Who thought that his comments would free-us.
We did get his goat
because he thought what he wrote
Would help him step up and be-us

But....alas...it didn't work...or, if our grammarians are female.... please change the words "his" and "him" in above limerick to "her"...just so we can be very PC...oops, no abbreviations...I meant

Politically Correct...

Now, just between you and I....(THAT IS THE ONE THAT GETS MY GOAT).

"I" is nominative case ...."between" takes the objective "me.".....

...just between YOU and ME....ME....ME....not

I

Ok....whew...that felt better.

Pretty funny, syclone!

Actually, I don't take offense at anyone's writing in forums...we all type quickly, or some of us, and it is easy to not check and double-check spelling and grammar. I go back and edit sometimes, but I'm sure a
"picky" writer could find errors in my form and style of writing.

Eh! Who cares?????

terri

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Alric @ Nov 8 2006, 10:04 AM) [snapback]345441[/snapback]</div>

I agree(d?) :lol: :lol:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bigdaddy @ Nov 8 2006, 07:05 AM) [snapback]345442[/snapback]</div>

Somebody call me? I was roused from my deep angry sleep.

In the cases mentioned above, I didn't correct anybody. Spell-checkers do that for free. I just pointed out that writing like a third-grader really diminishes the strength of your argument. daronspicher sent a comic suggestion above that was full of deliberate errors. He got no responses because nobody took him seriously.

I do wander around PriusChat a bit but try to have something of a little depth to add to the discussion at hand. I think you might find I've had a lot more to discuss than just grammar lessons which, by the way, I put in their own thread so it would be easy to ignore.

As for the limericks, I was trying to figure out the scan that makes them so compelling and, having given it a try, thought I'd share it. Again, I didn't correct anybody. It was like doing a crossword puzzle. Limericks, like haiku, stand or fall on their meter. I discovered that limericks have some subtle variations that are fun. (And I actually played the game and participated in the writing of the limericks.)

I have noticed that one person who got me started on this rant suddenly improved his writing almost overnight as he seemed to finally give a care for his audience. His ideas have been treated with a lot more respect by those who respond to him. This is bad? I have a frivolous degree in French linguistics and it got me to notice these things. I like good language. My bad.

Alnilam does mean "string of pearls." (See the closet semanticists in our group?) It is the Arabic name for the center star in Orion's belt. These three stars, as you can see in my avatar, do indeed form such a string. I am an astronomy prof these days and chose this symbol as an indication of my center-of-the-road attitude toward most things. I seldom find myself convinced by extremists of either camp. I'm forever surrounded by Alnitak and Mintaka who argue night after night. You can easily see the angry glow around Alnitak, a consummate flamer!

Same here. Random spelling errors are common and should be overlooked, but when they dominate a person's writing, forgive me if I don't take the ideas expressed very seriously. I got a kick out of syclone's rules and will try to observe them. And I will always, always (kinda) take the time to try to carefully avoid these malaprops (and even others) like fleas on a dog like the one I walks with. Promise!

Now back to serious ideas. Anybody see anything wrong with "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"? These discussions are the salt in my coffee!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Nov 8 2006, 09:18 PM) [snapback]346096[/snapback]</div>

You're right. What you did was to (cleverly) create a new word "not wreck" made of two other words, which is OK in English. English is such a wonderful language because it encourages us to make new words on the fly, even if it means you steal foreign words unchanged, ad hoc. (French really discourages this, with an official government agency, the Alliance Française; standing guard and issuing tickets.)

The idea that split infinitives are wrong comes from Latin where it is impossible to do so because the "to" part is included in the verb. ("videre" means "to see" so "Amo videre pulchras feminas." means "I love to see beautiful women.")

Purists wanted to carry this closeness into English and issued the ban we are stuck with [sic]. Such a rule would have amused the Romans who cared nothing for word order: the endings on their words gave the meaning, not the order they were said. ("Canis mordit hominem" and "Hominem mordit canis" mean the same thing: "The dog bit the man." The opposite is "Canem mordit hominus." or any combination of these three words.)

Rules should have a purpose: ours, concerning split infinitives, doesn't. Spelling rules, however, although nearly impossible to list in English, help us make sense of languages which have many meanings for the same sounds. "The night was cold" and "The knight was cold" become much clearer when spelled correctly.

Alnilam the Dweeb

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(syclone @ Nov 8 2006, 08:29 AM) [snapback]345386[/snapback]</div>

Love it. Will use this at work, too! Thanks for the satire!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Nov 9 2006, 12:18 AM) [snapback]346096[/snapback]</div>

Totally agree with you, Tony!! I was an English teacher, then went into Speech/Language Pathology and, so, studied linguistics in-depth.....

One can get crazy with it...and there are many exceptions to rules throughout and across languages.

Your example is a perfect one!

The more I studied and still study our language, the less I know about "rules" since they are broken for reasons....

With my children in school, many of whom had language problems at many levels.....I deliberately made some common errors during sessions (I had one to five in a group)...and they earned points for writing down or noticing the error and for being able to "fix" it. Each child showed my his/her note near the end of the lesson. None of the others knew what they "caught" or whether or not they were right or wrong. NEVER embarrass ....so that way, one child wasn't favored over another...it was private and individual...and they loved it.


It was fun that way....no one was hurt....even when we edited papers in school, the children did most of their own editing, and we would focus on just a few areas at a time, until they learned that particular "rule."


This way, students can own the final product. If they were going to "publish" the product...i.e., send it in to a paper or enter a contest, we talked about how important it was to do the best editing, relying on the input of a mentor or teacher to learn why changes were being made for the final product, since final form, not just the content, would be considered by the recipients.

So...nowadays, I just let all the errors roll off ...as long as someone makes his/her point....I make my own share of them as well! Nice to be human....

terri

 

It has been a long time since grammar was prescriptive. Linguists are not interested in laying down "rules" of what is correct and what is incorrect. Grammar is now descriptive - describing the way people actually speak and write, as opposed to how they are "supposed" to speak and write. Rather than thinking about "rules" think about how creative, subtle, and sensitive to the music of language a person is. That can't be taught in school.

 

All weighs used a smell cheque her two bee sir ton its spelt write.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Nov 9 2006, 03:53 PM) [snapback]346488[/snapback]</div>

Eye halve a spelling chequer,
It came with my pea sea,
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rarely ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I'm shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect in it's weigh,
My chequer tolled me sew.