New Poll: Where do you stand on syntactical and lexical correctitude?

Jim_Campbell · 08 July, 2006, 06:04:15 PM

"how about the venerable fish mongers/green grocers habit of putting two units on a single number, as in ?1.50p grrr."

I'll see that and raise you "one pence."

No! It's a fucking penny. Pence is the plural, as is dice.

Oh, and while I'm at it: newsreaders and pronounciation!

Ten years is a decade, pronounced "deck-aid" - "decayed" is something entirely fucking different. The bomb squad did not "diffuse" the suspect device, they de-fused it.

Women do not get "cerv-eye-cal" cancer, because they don't have a "cerv-eye-x".

Oh, God ... I could go on for hours ...

Cheers!

Jim

Floyd-the-k · 08 July, 2006, 06:25:19 PM

and it's 'thought bubble' not 'thought balloon'. Some people think it's a matter of usage but it isn't. I'm right. Grrrr.

Jim_Campbell · 08 July, 2006, 08:03:08 PM

"I picture myself as The Punctuator, stalking the streets as the world's only vigilante copy-editor... "

I'm suprised that such a character never turned up in Morrison's Doom Patrol, frankly.[1]

Cheers!

Jim

[1] Even though it would have violated the CORE CONCEPT. You asshole. [/Byrne]

IndigoPrime · 08 July, 2006, 08:11:08 PM

:: pronounciation

On that subject, there's always Bill Bryson laying into the US pronunciation of "buoy" (boo-ee), despite saying "boy-ant" rather than "boo-ee-ant". Actually, if anyone has a passing interest in language (or more, clearly), Bryson's "Mother Tongue" is well worth a read. It's really entertaining and at least as good as his travel books.

House of Usher · 09 July, 2006, 09:33:22 AM

Of course, that'd be 'pronunciation', as IndigoPrime quite correctly spells and pronounces it, rather than 'pronounciation'...

Jim_Campbell · 09 July, 2006, 04:36:44 PM

"Of course, that'd be 'pronunciation', as IndigoPrime quite correctly spells and pronounces it, rather than 'pronounciation'..."

Oh, the shame ...

Cheers!

Jim

Dark Jimbo · 09 July, 2006, 05:59:20 PM

What about 'could of?'

'I could of done it differently' - Also should of, would of, might of...

It's could have, you fucking moron, could have, could have!!!!

Floyd-the-k · 09 July, 2006, 06:15:08 PM

Bryson's "Mother Tongue" is okay, but 'Made in America' is far better - all about myths of American history and its contribution to English

House of Usher · 09 July, 2006, 06:53:01 PM

To that you could add 'bored of'. It's bored with... etc.

Jim_Campbell · 09 July, 2006, 07:00:36 PM

"It's could have, you fucking moron, could have, could have!!!!"

Easy with those exclamation marks, there, tiger!

Almost precisely the reverse is one of Garth Ennis' little stylistic tics:

"...a whole bunch've them ..."

No idea whether he still does, but he used to do it all the time, circa Preacher and it always made me want to scream:

"That make NO FUCKING SENSE WHATSOEVER! Are you bloody illiterate, or something?"

Cheers!

Jim

House of Usher · 09 July, 2006, 07:24:58 PM

"Bunch've". Heh. Nice and phonetically rendered, but the nuance is so subtle as to be barely worth distinguishing from 'bunch of'. Compare with 'buncha'.

There's a glitch in Prog 1495's The VCs that one sees from time to time. On the fifth page, Smith says "Why d'ya have to pull a trick like this?"

Is that do you, or did you? Is impersonating targets for assassination something that Keege gets up to often? If so, then "Why d'ya" would appear to be correct.

If, on the other hand, it's something Keege has only done once, with tragic consequences, then "Why'd ya" would make more sense.