Random Thoughts On The Decline Of English

Fred On Everything ^ | 010504 | Fred Reed

[Positive]

"miscengenation" = miscegenation.

[nopardons]

Ye gods and little fishes...who says that junk ?

Since I don't watch anything but cable T.V. and two shows on PBS,I seem to have missed hearing any of that.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Too many passives. Doesn't the writer know that "The bridge is being built," is improper (circa 1700) and "The bridge is building," is correct?

[SouthernClaire]

One fine writing. However, it does discount the fact that not all are given the opportunity to secure a fine edumacation.

I agreed up to the PORTION that seemed to convey that those of a certain status need not apply and need not try. "We fill the universities with people who have no business being there." (Words exist for what I really want to use here .... but, no, good judjeeement prevails.)

Not all are ignorant by choice. Rather, circumstance has left some of usn's in positions we'd, given the choice, not be. Takes no genius to figure that one.

Proper is great. However, it's not topping my list tonight. I have work to do in order to pay to send my child to ... what? A university to teach her how UNwell-spoken I beeze. Great.

In the end, the entire article is garbage. It places no burden on intelligence, but all on chance. It’s an insult to every hardworking man or woman who's not had the same opportunities (or plain luck) as others and who must work to a physical exhaustion that those so fortunate enough to know where properly to place a semi-colon may never know.

“Chance,” it’s called. It’s that thing that happens when I child is born and looks up for the first time and asks:

“Whom did I get?”

[Dog Gone]

While there is much truth to this, language does evolve and anyone who fights this will likely be speaking Chaucer's English a thousand years from now, and be just as hard to understand.

[FrogMom]

My pet peeve lately is lose and loose as in, "Did you loose your wallet?" I get vivid pictures in my fevered mind of a wildly thrashing wallet let loose on the world.

[CrazyIvan]

Our community recently lost one of it's most beloved ladies, a retired English professor from the local college. A nurse approached her on her death bed and asked, "Where does it hurt at?" According to local legend her last words were: "You mean 'Where does it hurt'."

[Nick Danger]

It just wouldn't be Free Republic if somebody didn't catch the grammar cop making a mistake.

you cannot tell good jitterbugging from bad if you do not know the structure of the dance, so you cannot tell good writing from bad if you don’t know the language works.

There. I feel much gooder now.

[Paulus Invictus]

Hey dude, like, you know, like, wats wrong with English? All you need to do is listen to young people struggle to make themselves understood with their limited grasp of the language. It's sad, but English is declining fast.

[bonfire]

How funny! Good for her. I hope my last words are as memorable!

[nopardons]

Barbra Striesand !

In the past, people used to strive to improve themselves and that included how they wrote and spoke. Formal education had little to do with it. Even new immigrants went to the movies, to learn what to emulate, to belong.Now, movies and T.V. script writers use base language, bring everything down into the gutter, and you have middle and upper middle and even upper class kids emulating the lowest of the low, in speech, dress, manners (?), and morals.

[bonfire]

Fox girls say it all the time. The most notorious offender is Nancy Grace.

The "where are you at?" I hear all the freaking time by cell phone users in stores. Makes my skin crawl.

[clodkicker]

Never use a preposition to end a sentence with.

[FormerlyAnotherLurker]

Good authors too who once knew better words
Now only use four-letter words
Writing prose.
Anything goes.

Cole Porter - 1934 Broadway musical, Anything Goes! (Act 1 Scene 6)

[nopardons]

Since I turn FNC on around 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. and turn the sound off, when Laurie Due et al come on, I guess I've been lucky to have missed hearing the " girls " say that.

The other, makes my skin crawl and my teeth itch. I share your dislike of the phrase, but I haven't actually heard anyone say it.

The " anyways " and messed up spellings of your/you're, there/they're/their on FR, drives my nuts.

[July 4th]

Fo shizzle.

[SouthernClaire]

Thanks. But, it's "Babs" (?) to you, if you don't mind! :-)

You missed my point.

Or either you made my point. I'm not sure.

Taking your view, I agree: We should emulate best behaviour. However, when that's not to be found, what then?

My point is that we should not take people as idiots or believe they don't want to learn simply because they're in no position to learn.

[nopardons]

Yes, great lyrics and from an equally great musical. But, things are now very much worse, than they were back then, as far as the writing ability of published authors and the general public.

[bonfire]

lol! I live in TX and they have there own version of English.

[scab4faa]

Why English is hard to learn
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?