And it's become almost acceptable to write "could care less" when you mean "couldn't care less". You know, exactly the opposite. People should stop and think about what they're actually writing.Originally Posted by Lycanking
And I daresay I'm not the only one who cares. Anyone who cares about language cares about this stuff. And everybody should care about language. It's how we make sense of the world around us.
I don't really care about language all that much, but having spent 4 years of my life studying Language Practice I also notice most of these common mistakes that people make every day. I am even guilty of some of these transgressions myself. Most of the time I just ignore them, but there are some that really irritate me to no end. An example of this would be the (erroneous) Afrikaans expressions "Ek doen" or "Ek doen nie" that I hear on almost a daily basis. I almost always want to ask them "Wat doen jy?"
I assume people use it in the same sense as the English "I do" and "I don't", but it sounds so horrible.
Indeed, and culture is the means through which we interpret language so provided the majority understand your meaning and find it to be socially acceptable, your incorrect use of a term is in fact culturally correct.
I seldom use leetspeak without an implied sense of irony or scorn, and I'd hardly say it happens "all the time". I'd also add that, as someone who writes impeccable English everywhere else, and understands the language down to esoteric points of grammar and punctuation, I'm allowed to consciously break a rule here and there for amusement. Artistic licence.
Having said that, however, I'm not convinced leetspeak is rule-breaking as such. Because...
Slang and incorrect language usage are two different things. I really don't understand what's got you so stroppy about this. I offered some constructive criticism about the magazine - and sincerely at that, because I think community projects like this are great. But using random initial capitals all over the place, for example, just looks awful and unprofessional, because it's incorrect. Granted, the broken metaphor is a more subtle error, but I passed it by several friends, asking if they'd object to the expression, all of whom agreed that it was conceptually problematic.
I'd have a rant here about the current state of education and the rapidly declining quality of written English among young people, but I won't. Pretend I did.
Last edited by Azimuth; 11-11-2010 at 12:01 PM.
My apologies for perpetually derailing your thread, Abev. All respects due, but I simply have to add this tit bit.
The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five year phase-in plan that would be known as "Euro-English".
In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of the "k". This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be ekspekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent "e"s in the language is disgraseful, and they should go away.
By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v". During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.
After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to understand ech ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum tru! And zen world!
sauce
The result of babysteps in leniency?
Actually, reading the quote made my eye twitch as well.
I have to agree with ThunderAxe once again, even though I'm really stoked at Abev's efforts and enthusiasm in the gaming media industry. He should see it as helpful tips to being even more awesome.
+1Actually, reading the quote made my eye twitch as well.
I have to agree with ThunderAxe once again, even though I'm really stoked at Abev's efforts and enthusiasm in the gaming media industry. He should see it as helpful tips to being even more awesome.
I think the mag is looking rad and it's obvious that a lot of effort has been put into it, but it never hurts to have a Grammar Nazi on your staff.
Preferably all three, but one or two can work.
Hey whats wrong with your?
:P
Proper English usage is what separates us from animals, savages, and George Bush. It's even more important for any sort of publication, especially if you're an online start-up competing with more established printed mags.
A small bit of professionalism goes a long way.
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