New FFF.net Grammar Brigade...join here!
POSTED BY: Caite
UPDATED: Monday, April 18, 2005 11:22
VIEWED: 17257
PAGE 1 of 7
Since so many people in another thread expressed an interest in grammar and in starting a shiny grammar "club" here's the chance! Post all about your grammar pet peeves, desires, admonishments, etc here 
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Hooray!
I'll begin with the word "complected", as in, "She was dark complected."
Ugh, people, the word is complexioned. Complected is not a word.
Wow, feels good to say that. Okay, it's someone else's turn. I'll think of more things to gripe about later.
Love ya'll!
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Okay, here's my pet grammar peeve: I really don't like people who overgeneralize grammar rules. The one that I am thinking of (that I hear most often) is when people want to say something like "Kaylee came over to talk to Mal and me," but because they've always heard that it's "Mal and I" they say that even though it's not correct.
The best way to keep from making this mistake is take out the other person. Would you say "Kaylee came over to talk to I?" No, you wouldn't. You'd say "Kaylee came over to talk to me."
Next person, por favor.
p.s. this is fun in a really sick and twisted way.
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One of my biggest grammar pet peeves is miscongugation (is that a word?) of the verb "see":
If you've watched TV or read books or newspapers or even print ads all of your life, there is no way in hell you'd think that "I seen" is correct grammar.
I seen, you seen, he seen, she seen they seen...
It makes me flinch to hear it, and it almost makes my fingers cramp to type that abuse of the language.
Ahhhh...I feel better.
"Take me, sir. Take me hard." -- Zoe
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Oh! There's also "good" and "well".
Ay caramba!!
Doesn't everyone know the difference?
One feels well.
One does good.
"Take me, sir. Take me hard." -- Zoe
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Quote:
Originally posted by Rat on the ask ndugu thread:
*Sneaks out back door.*
*Stumbles head first into this thread.*
Goshdarnit! Who put this here???
-Ratboy
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Now, uh: am I the only one thinkin' it's all kinds of ironical to be talkin' grammar peeves on a Firefly site?
Quote:
I seen, you seen, he seen, she seen they seen...
It makes me flinch to hear it, and it almost makes my fingers cramp to type that abuse of the language.
Ahhhh...I feel better.
Not for long, you don't!
KAYLEE: The only place I seen somethin' so nice is some of the things Inara has.
SAFFRON: I seen my sisteren paired off with ugly men. Vicious or blubberous.
KAYLEE: I seen the trouble plain as day when I was down there on my back before.
MAL: I seen you without your clothes on before. Never thought I'd see you naked.
_________
Sliders: Gate Haven - http://slidersweb.net/blinker
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I'm a linguistics major, and the linguistics point of view is that anything is valid, more or less, so long as it's intelligible to those around you. The thing is that language is a very personal thing, and so it's extremely easy for differences that you feel are wrong to irritate the crap out of you even though they don't really cause any difference in meaning.
Objectively, there's nothing any more right about "I have seen" than there is about "I seen" - both get the point across just the same. The key is that each one expresses a different kind of (for lack of a better term) social class. Part of the point of the language in Firefly is to note specifically that these people are outlaws, not exactly rich and prosperous members of society (except Book and Simon and River when she makes sense - they're clearly much more highly educated).
So think of it that way. People aren't screwing up the language, they're not saying it wrong, they're modifying it so that it expresses part of their own identity as well as the meanings of the words. You're allowed to not like it, and insist you'll never use it yourself, but that still doesn't make it wrong.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Thrawn:
People aren't screwing up the language, they're not saying it wrong, they're modifying it so that it expresses part of their own identity as well as the meanings of the words. You're allowed to not like it, and insist you'll never use it yourself, but that still doesn't make it wrong.
I'd say that applies more to the spoken word than the written word. Saying 'I seen' and writing 'I seen' are two entirely different things.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Caite:
Since so many people in another thread expressed an interest in grammar and in starting a shiny grammar "club" here's the chance! Post all about your grammar pet peeves, desires, admonishments, etc here
Oh Gawd! Please don’t get me started! I’ll join, I’ll join!!
I had grammar lessons when I was at school and I did classics (Latin and Greek) at university, so I have a pedantic and thoroughly annoying obsession with correct grammar. At least, I obviously don’t consider it pedantic and annoying, but I’m told, unreservedly, by everyone else I know, that it is! (Bast*rds!)
My serious pet hate is the grocers’ apostrophe. I.e. where an apostrophe appears for no reason in plurals e.g. “carrots’ for sale”. Grr! Makes me mad as hell!
My other peeve is that I dictate letters to my secretary where I say, “I should be grateful if you would” do such and such and I get them back with: “I shall be grateful if you will”! Mad I say, mad as hell!
Okay, I'm lost, I'm angry, and I'm
armed.
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