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Vocabulary rant

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“What ho, Jeeves, I literally LOL’d.”
“Indeed, sir.”
“Pardon my mentioning it, Jeeves, but you look like you just swallowed a poop imoji.”
“I belive it to be a parasympathetic response on behalf of Messers Fowler and Fowler, in response to your idiosyncratic use of the King’s English, sir.”

For a take in the other direction, there's the William Shakespeare's Star Wars series, by Ian Doescher. See: William Shakespeare’s Star Wars | Ian Doescher
 
Life is all about shades of grey, vocabulary brings clarity.
dave
One could say I have 1,984 reasons why there shouldn't be shades of grey and that there should be limits on the number of words we use to express ourselves.

Aside from that I hate when people use tax return and tax refund interchangeably.
 

martym

Unacceptably Lasering Chicken Giblets?
My 7th grade English teacher would always say, “A lot is a piece of land. A bunch is a cluster; as in grapes and bananas.”

I literally died laughing reading this ...



They do that alot?
 
My 7th grade English teacher would always say, “A lot is a piece of land. A bunch is a cluster; as in grapes and bananas.”

I had a high school English teacher who said the same thing. Unfortunately, in grabbing one definition, she overlooked the others associated with the word.
 
It drives me up the wall when a person confuses ...

Podium: a small platform on which a person may stand to be seen by an audience, as when making a speech or conducting an orchestra.

Lectern: a tall stand with a sloping top to hold a book or notes, from which someone, typically a preacher or lecturer, can read while standing up.

I cringe when I'm in a meeting or conference and the speaker introduces someone and states..."and now, Mr. Cohiba will take the podium." I want to scream...."What The Freak"!!! "Where's the podium, oh you mean LECTERN'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This boys and girls is a LECTERN:
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This boys and girls is a PODIUM:
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This one really bothered my now long deceased Father. However, looking up podium in various on-line dictionaries, reveals "lectern" among the definitions. I forget what Fowler called it when a distinct useful word took on as an additional meaning that of another distinct useful word so as to render the language more ambiguous. The path of the word "disinterest" moving from meaning "lack of bias" to also potentially meaning "uninterest' is an example. Fowler did not like it. I do not like it. But it happens.
 
I think it was episode 4 (maybe 6-if not, keep watching) of a Canadian show called "Corner Gas" on amazon prime, where Wanda keeps correcting everyone's use of articles. Great episode. Overall, a pretty funny, "clean", comedy show.
 
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People don't know the difference between amount and number.

Seems like nobody can find things they have loosed.
 
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Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
I get irritated at people who are unaware of adverbs.

Shocking lack of awareness in today's world. There was a very famous television show all about adverbtizing that ran for many seasons.

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I think it was episode 4 (maybe 6-if not, keep watching) of a Canadian show called "Corner Gas" on amazon prime, where Wanda keeps correcting everyone's use of articles. Great episode. Overall, a pretty funny, "clean", comedy show.

Great show. Great episode. Wanda is a great character.
 

garyg

B&B membership has its percs
I don't know why I find this objectionable, but I'm very tired of the over-use of the word "transparent". Also, "transparency". There's always talk of politicians, CEO's and others accountable to various others as needing to be more open and transparent in their dealings and statements. That accountability would be more effective if we used the actual word they are alluding to which is honesty. I don't need or want people to be more "transparent" whatever the h*** that's supposed to mean. We need them to be honest. You're either being honest, or dis-honest......not transparent. Rant over.

"Transparent" is something most politicians will say when they are about to lie to you, or, to Mac's point, is that li 2 u?

It Takes a Twit to Raise a Tweet
 

oc_in_fw

Fridays are Fishtastic!
One could say I have 1,984 reasons why there shouldn't be shades of grey and that there should be limits on the number of words we use to express ourselves.

Aside from that I hate when people use tax return and tax refund interchangeably.
And that limits thought. The world is not black and white
 
What amazes me is how there are some words or phrases placed (often inappropriately) at the beginning of sentences, that suddenly come in fashion, and that it does not appear to matter what the speaker's first language is.

For a while it was "So, ...".
Q. "What is your favourite cookie?"
A. "So, I think chocolate chip is the best."​
I caught myself doing it, and worked hard to avoid it.

Also, "Basically".
Q. "How wealthy are you?"
A. "Basically I have more money than Bill Gates."​
What, is there a more complex answer?

Then it's "I mean..."
Q. "What day do you want to have lunch?"
A. "I mean, Thursday is good for me."​
A bit later, it evolved to "Well I mean ..."
Typically it's all mashed together, as in "Wellimean ..."

These words and phrases add absolutely no meaning to the sentence. At least with "um...", you know that the person is indicating that they're thinking about it.

As near as I can make out, they are somewhere between a filler (see Filler (linguistics) - Wikipedia ) and a discourse marker (see Discourse marker - Wikipedia ).
Or, they are discourse markers (which have meaning) being used as fillers (which do not). Learned speakers and trained media personalities do it.

The real mystery is how does it propagate so quickly, and to all corners of the globe? You're watching a panel discussion on CNN, and one guest is from, say, North Korea (or wherever), with a heavy accent, and halting English, and still they'll be saying "Well I mean ...".

They never appear in written material, not even close-captioning on TV, unless it's part of a character's dialog in a script.

It drives me up the wall when a person confuses ...

Podium: a small platform on which a person may stand to be seen by an audience, as when making a speech or conducting an orchestra.

Lectern: a tall stand with a sloping top to hold a book or notes, from which someone, typically a preacher or lecturer, can read while standing up.

I cringe when I'm in a meeting or conference and the speaker introduces someone and states..."and now, Mr. Cohiba will take the podium." I want to scream...."What The Freak"!!! "Where's the podium, oh you mean LECTERN'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This boys and girls is a LECTERN:
proxy.php



This boys and girls is a PODIUM:
proxy.php
Don't forget "dais" and "pulpit".

Speaking of pulpits, a "bully pulpit" is not a "pulpit for a bully". It uses "bully" in the sense of "admirable" or "excellent".

Is it shrinking or changing? Read someone like G.K. Chesterton, who wrote roughly a century ago. The words in everyday usage shifts with time.
The other day my son told that "words don't have meanings—they have usages".
I think he may have the right of it, sadly.
_______________________________

"Mega" - don't get me going. "That ice cream is mega-tasty!"
(cue Boot to the head)

"Literally" - that's been well-covered.
 

oc_in_fw

Fridays are Fishtastic!
What amazes me is how there are some words or phrases placed (often inappropriately) at the beginning of sentences, that suddenly come in fashion, and that it does not appear to matter what the speaker's first language is.

For a while it was "So, ...".
Q. "What is your favourite cookie?"
A. "So, I think chocolate chip is the best."​
I caught myself doing it, and worked hard to avoid it.

Also, "Basically".
Q. "How wealthy are you?"
A. "Basically I have more money than Bill Gates."​
What, is there a more complex answer?

Then it's "I mean..."
Q. "What day do you want to have lunch?"
A. "I mean, Thursday is good for me."​
A bit later, it evolved to "Well I mean ..."
Typically it's all mashed together, as in "Wellimean ..."

These words and phrases add absolutely no meaning to the sentence. At least with "um...", you know that the person is indicating that they're thinking about it.

As near as I can make out, they are somewhere between a filler (see Filler (linguistics) - Wikipedia ) and a discourse marker (see Discourse marker - Wikipedia ).
Or, they are discourse markers (which have meaning) being used as fillers (which do not). Learned speakers and trained media personalities do it.

The real mystery is how does it propagate so quickly, and to all corners of the globe? You're watching a panel discussion on CNN, and one guest is from, say, North Korea (or wherever), with a heavy accent, and halting English, and still they'll be saying "Well I mean ...".

They never appear in written material, not even close-captioning on TV, unless it's part of a character's dialog in a script.


Don't forget "dais" and "pulpit".

Speaking of pulpits, a "bully pulpit" is not a "pulpit for a bully". It uses "bully" in the sense of "admirable" or "excellent".


The other day my son told that "words don't have meanings—they have usages".
I think he may have the right of it, sadly.
_______________________________

"Mega" - don't get me going. "That ice cream is mega-tasty!"
(cue Boot to the head)

"Literally" - that's been well-covered.
I finally broke myself of saying “what’s up (fill in name here)?” because I work with a guy name Chuck. It just flowed out, and I grimaced after every time. Took about 20 times saying that before I finally stopped.
 
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