Posted on 02/25/2005 11:29:26 AM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
There are some things I just do not understand, and I am at a point where I have given up on figuring out many of these puzzlers.
But there are still some conundrums I am determined to solve.
For the life of me I cannot understand how it is that we have reached this level in our academic careers and we still cannot speak proper English.
We have all taken at least seven years of secondary English classes prior to coming to Penn State, and once we are here, we must take a minimum of two more classes. These courses, in addition to the primary schooling we receive and the out-of-class interaction we have with other people, should provide ample opportunity to learn, if not master, this language of ours.
I have to admit, I do find it humorous when people try to speak correctly and fail miserably. I had a friend who would say phrases such as, "If you have problems, come see Heather or I."
At the time, I never had the guts to correct her, but now in a public forum I will.
My friend should tell people to see "Heather and me," because if we were to remove Heather, my friend would not say "come see I," she would say "come see me."
I also hear people say, "Heather and me went to the movies."
Once again, without Heather, I doubt "me went to the movies." While you may think I am just an anal grammar prick, I am just tired of hearing Penn Staters sound like morons.
Critics will say students here are highly intelligent.
Yet on a daily basis I am inundated with examples proving otherwise.
For example, take the word "ignorant."
Now those who have actually picked up a dictionary know the word means lacking education or knowledge.
Chances are, if you have made it to college you have picked up a dictionary at least once, which is why I cannot understand for the life of me why people insist on using this word to mean "rude."
I hear phrases such as, "Gosh, he is so ignorant.
How could he even say that to you" all the time, but now that everyone is clear on the true meaning of the word ignorant, the next time I hear this statement, the "he" in question better be showing a lack of knowledge.
As much as I do not like misuse of the word ignorant, there are several things that irk me more. One of them includes our good friend, Mr. Supposedly. This guy just tries to live a normal life like any other word and then we come along and try to hook him up with Ms. Supposebly.
Now this would be great if "supposebly" were actually in the English lexicon. In fact, it is not, and it is a sorry excuse for the pronunciation of Mr. Supposedly.
And there is no convincing me that I am wrong or that this mistake is not that big of a deal; Chandler broke up with a girl for doing the same thing.
The common problems I hear do not always have to do with people making up words or mispronouncing ones that actually exist.
One thing to which I have really taken a notice lately is the overuse of the word "like."
It is one thing to "like" a boy or live "like" royalty, but it is quite another to, "Like, oh my gosh, did you like, hear like, what like he said to her?"
Now let's examine this for a second. Would anyone ever actually write that out on paper? No. So if you wouldn't write it out on paper, why would you say it aloud?
Amy Heckerling's 1995 hit Clueless introduced our generation to this horrible word, and ever since we have not been able to let go of it.
While it may have been trendy to use "like" in between each word back then, now it just makes the speaker look like a fool.
Imagine this: You graduate from Penn State and go out into the real world to a job interview.
The interviewer begins by asking you a few questions about your background and previous experience.
Now, do you honestly think the interviewer will hire a perceivably ditzy chica who used the words "like" and "you know" as often as it rains in State College?
Or will he or she choose a perceivably intelligent young lass who is well-spoken and articulate.
I think the answer is clear.
While this hypothetical situation may be several years off for many students here, it really is never too early to start looking to the future. Old habits have the tendency to die hard, and it will take a while to shake those old ways.
The future will look brighter though, and I am sure your professors and anal retentive English geek friends will appreciate the effort, too.
The 1957 Fowler is in my bag right now, for short breaks and lunch reading. It's the Bible of grammarians.
In college, I found that the lower the grade level that a scoring program I found on an HP3000 (this was 27 years ago) in the Mathematics department scored my papers, the higher the grade I recieved.
Our papers were graded by TAs who did not speak English well. The less I strained their brains, the more I was rewarded.
I am learning Latin as I teach my daughter. (homeschooling)
Latin makes things so much easier to point out, like plural you, parts of speech and how sentences work.
It is great. I did not have a chance to learn in school.
Mom is getting a better education now, though. LOL!!
The three language misuses that irk me the most are three VERY common mispronunciations:
1. Mischievous -- It is NOT mis-chee-vee-us!
2. Often -- It's OFF-uhn, not OFF-tuhn!
3. Sophomore -- The middle "o" is silent!
MM
I LOVE it.
Daughter has been another matter until recently.
She is admitting to liking it as well. Hrooah!
Remarkable!
But with all the degree-anal employers around, without the sheepskin one is scrooed.
I've seen him on televison a couple of times.
He is, indeed, as you say, remarkable.
I can't really help it though.
When I IM, I write at least semi-formal still. The one difference is I do this between sentences: "Yeah, it was fun last night...I can't believe Joey fell asleep watching that movie, however."
"Last night, a car speeding down the interstate kills a family of...." No, I'm sorry, The accident happened last night and the past tense is appropriate; IE "The family was killed last night..." In a feeble attempt to make everything into breaking news we have thrown out the past tense. This sloppy habit has spread into everyday conversational English. Occasionally I've even caught my wife, a "language arts major" doing it!
To really compound the verbal felony, substitute "goes" for "says" or "said" and you wind up with "He goes 'lets grab lunch', and I go 'sure'!" What on earth has happened to our beautiful, rich, colorful, subtle, dare I say 'nuanced' language.
I fear it's been assassinated by adolescents.
Regards,
GtG
Lots of Texans pronounce it that way.
My mother, who grew up in New Jersey and has no discernible accent, made sure that her three Texas-bred children ditto. You can't tell I'm from Texas until you get me drunk.
Miss, you seem to be a little clueless. The "he", as you call him, shows a "lack of knowledge" of proper manners. That is the reason people use "ignorant" in that context. Call it slang if you wish, but if you couldn't figure that out on your own, you're as stupid as your fellow students.
Or how about this:
"He's like 'lets grab lunch', and I'm like 'sure'!" I've heard that usage a few times too many.
Is that how you get conjuctivitis?
But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
If you always use perfect grammar when speaking, or even writing, you can come across as stilted. For example "Who are you gonna go to the dance with?" sounds much more normal than "With whom will you go to the dance?"
That said, there are way too many people whose use of grammar is so bad that it's difficult to tell exactly what they're trying to say.
It drives me mad. However, I'm certain that I have mangled badly and butchered the English language myself so I have little right to complain.
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