'The word pedants' top 10 | It's specific, not Pacific...' blog discussion.

KimYeovil

(And emcwill has not returned to defend their omission of apostrophe-s from 'goodness sake'!!!)

jools0001

pgd wrote: »

...and I also believe that arks or aks/axe is Anglo Saxon again...

Yes, I read that somewhere too, maybe in Melvyn Bragg's Adventure of English.

Much of what people think is 'incorrect' English is just regional dialect where older words have survived longer than they have in other parts of the country.

Identity and belonging are as much a component of language as communication. With hindsight I'm happy that my mother didn't correct my dropped Hs and glottal stop Ts, because I never felt like I was set apart from my peers by having a 'funny' or 'posh' accent (like she was with her boarding-school R.P.). I learnt to speak one way and write another, which is what any literate child with a regional accent or dialect does.

findochtywifie

I teach in a secondary school and in a class of 13 year olds one asked "Can I go to the toilet?" I replied, " I don't know, can you go to the toilet? Do you want me to come with you and find out? Or did you mean may I go to the toilet?"

I was reported to the school management by some of the class for asking to watch this boy go to the loo!

kneelbeforezod

RachelD wrote: »

I blame this 'off of' usage on 'Hey you, get off of my cloud..'

I assume that's the Rolling Stones reference?

If we're getting onto wrecking the English language to make pop song lyrics rhyme or fit the melody, one only need look at the abortion that is Deacon Blue's "Real Gone Kid" (perhaps someone could explain to me what a 'gone kid' is anyway?):

"And I'll show you all the photographs that I ever got took"

"I'll do what I should've (of? ) did"

Horrible!

postrophe

eleanor. wrote: »

I signed up to say there should be an apostrophe on 'pedants' in the title, but you have spotted it already - you can't have a rant about pedants and miss a vital apostrophe!

.... but, surely, if they are the top 10 of Martin (1 person), the 'postrophe is still missplaced. No :question:

shiatsudave

The word is "nothing" and not "nuffink", it's "anything" not "anyfink"

And it's "I've done nothing", rather than "I ain't dun nuffink" (outside of Albert Square anyway)

kneelbeforezod

postrophe wrote: »

.... but, surely, if they are the top 10 of Martin (1 person) the 'postrophe is still missplaced. No :question:

However, if you interpret the thread title as describing a group of people in the plural, it might be acceptable (i.e. we are "the word pedants" ? Or would we need to capitalise the words?

KimYeovil

findochtywifie wrote: »

I teach in a secondary school and in a class of 13 year olds one asked "Can I go to the toilet?" I replied, " I don't know, can you go to the toilet? Do you want me to come with you and find out? Or did you mean may I go to the toilet?"

I was reported to the school management by some of the class for asking to watch this boy go to the loo!

That is wonderful - especially that final kicker - you were not reported for being facetious and belittling - you were reported as a !!!!! threat!:T

hipslike

esuhl wrote: »

The use of "data" as if it were singular - "there isn't enough data" instead of "there aren't enough data".

An extract from the oxforddictionaries .com for data (apparently, as a new user I can't post a direct link).

Usage

In Latin, data is the plural of datum and, historically and in specialized scientific fields , it is also treated as a plural in English, taking a plural verb, as in the data were collected and classified. In modern non-scientific use, however , it is generally not treated as a plural. Instead, it is treated as a mass noun, similar to a word like information, which takes a singular verb. Sentences such asdata was collected over a number of yearsare now widely accepted in standard English.

Jezaroo

KimYeovil wrote: »

But... but... but... surely 'infinitesimal' is just as opposite and different from 'quantal' as an enormous leap is from a quantum one.

I think we need adjudication from Quasar on this one but surely one thing a quantum jump is not is infinitesimal - it is discrete and measurable.

To quote the physicist Dennis Overbye: "A person who wasn't outraged on first hearing about quantam theory didn't understand what had been said".
Quantal means having one of only two possible states, and a quantam leap, literally, is when an electron or atom changes from one to the other. And yes, these are very small changes. A typical atom has a diameter of 0.00000008cm. From here you can get into Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle where, in a nutshell, an electron doesn't exist until it is observed. Or, it is at once everywhere and nowhere.
It is this radical thinking, that gave rise to the phrase Quantam Leap, to quote Chambers:a sudden spectacular advance, esp one which dramatically skips over intermediate stages of understanding or development.
I gleaned most of this from Bill Bryson's 'A Short History of Nearly Everything'