Job Discussion Forums

[dajiang]

Well it's not really about what you think it annoying language use, is it?

It's about what's correct or not, and 'monies' is correct English as is 'persons'.

I like the way English is so versatile and that it comes in many forms. There's lots of room to play with it, and the language is constantly evolving.
It's like that stupid argument about zed and zee, why can't some people accept there are more versions of the same language eh?

Anyway, to Perpetual traveller (with two L's):
Thanks for pointing out I was misspelling Cappuccino.

DJ

[Perpetual Traveller]

Like I'm totally real like pleased to have been able to like help dajiang! The over use of 'like' is not only annoying but it really isn't correct English either.

Oh that reminds me, niether is one you sometimes see.

As for the zed versus zee argument, people can't accept that there is more than one version because zee is just wrong ok.

PT

[MoggIntellect]

"monies" and "persons" are, as the the article points out, parts of formal English. Does your local media actually use formal English? Mass media is written so that they everyday "persons" can understand it. When they say on the local news at 6:

"Mayor Michael Hearst was gettin' jiggy wit it down at the ABC orphanage early today.... the dance raised over $10,000, which will be used on upgrading the nursery."

Does that mean that "gettin jiggy wit it" is now a part of formal English?

I can fully except both "monies" and "persons" as a part of jargon, such as a "missing persons list", but what I cannot abide is how it has crept into informal usage.

Since you are talking about what is "correct" not just what is "annoying", I think that since English has no singular governing body over the language, that determines what is correct or incorrect, everything we say is correct. There is no definitive right and wrong, there simply is, in legal terms, precedent. That is why Michael Swan's Bible of grammar is simply called Practical English Usage. So, if we all start to speak like Mr. T, in a couple of hundred years, "I pity tha foo" will become formal standard English. You see what I'm getting at here?

[KES]

Add to the list the use of "decimate" to imply complete destruction rather than something closer to ten percent.

[dajiang]

Moggintellect: Right.

KES: I heard that the word 'decimate' came from Roman times, when, if a legionnaire made a mistake or committed a crime of sorts, his entire squad would be 'decimated'. That is 1/10th out of all of them would be killed.

It has grown to mean much more though, and to decimate a group of people means to sort of cut down a huge portion of it does mean that it's effectively destroyed.

It would be weird to, when I'm cutting 1/10ths of my cheese, say that I'm decimating my cheese.
Saying that evokes visions of someone violently butchering a cheese, sending pieces flying and all.

Note that I split my infinitive.

DJ

[Don McChesney]

You're only decimating your cheese if you are actually killing the small portion.
Is one fifth called double decimating or is that 1/V

[zhamr]

Some pet hates:

"one foul swoop" (fell - Shakespeare)
"to hone in on..." (hone means to sharpen, either physically or metaphorically)
using 'however' as a conjunction
split infinitives

[MoggIntellect]

Zhamr, wow, in one foul swoop you honed in on so many things I say, however I will try my best to completely stop doing this!

(Sorry, at this time of the morning I just couldn't resist!)

[Rabid]

Irregardless.

[KES]

It's a "mute" point.

[Don McChesney]

"I, myself think personally that this site is over the top, so to speak."

[clarrie]

The Americanisation of these causes me a certain amount of angst; eg, 'Do you like people coming to your home to visit?' when we're nowhere near the person's home.

'I'll bring you there.'



et cetera!