Well, because “uv” isn’t a word? Hey, at least give them half credit! 
On a purely emotional level, I can absolutely sympathise with the OP. We all have our grammer/spelling/usage pet peeves. I sure have mine.
But you really can’t make a logical argument that language doesn’t change, or that our language has gotten any worse because of past changes. And you clearly know that, otherwise you would of responded to the second paragraph in my post as well.
You should talk to me, then. I took a speech class in college, required for my major, broadcasting. The teacher sent me away with a note, telling my professors that there was no way she could improve my diction. 
(For broadcast purposes I actually have a bit of a sibilant s, but not enough to notice in the day to day world.)
Don’t go to the Sims 2 BBS or you’ll want to kill yourself.
Want to know what I hate? The misuse of “anymore”. As in:
**
**
That’s not how anymore works!
“Nobody enunciates properly anymore” = good.
“Everyone enunciates poorly anymore” = bad.
I don’t like to think of myself as a grammar nazi, but this anymore business hurts my head. I’ve never heard anyone use it like that in real life, and seeing it on the internet is driving me around the twist (I’m guessing it’s a regional thing but IT’S STILL WRONG!).
What’s wrong with good old “nowadays”? That’s what you really mean.
Sorry to pick on you CanvasShoes. If it’s any consolation, you can spell enunciate and I can’t so I had to copy from you
Sorry for the bad form in posting again so soon, but has anyone else tried a Googlefight on this point?
“Should have” and “Should’ve” both lost to “Should of” when I tried it.
y r u so ^tite? rofl!!!
Yeah. Should of is one of the last things we have to worry about in written language.
The difference in this case is that a sloppily written ‘should of’ is what’s influencing actual speech. It is a shift in speech, and thus one I extremely reluctantly acknowledge, but the only reason it’s happening is due to poor writing. It’s an artificial shift, in my opinion, and it bothers me.
Are you sure? I got “should have” beating “should of” by a whopping 51,100,000 to 914,000. But “should of” did beat “sould’ve” :eek:
I don’t think that’s true at all. People learn how to talk long before they learn to read and write, and those who aren’t interested enough to actually learn the proper use of contractions (sadly, this is not a small number) will take a phrase they’ve used and heard all thier life and translate it to paper incorrectly.
By this logic, my sister shouldn’t of got all riled when I punched her in the face cuz their was a muskeeto on her nose.
I mean, I kilt it, right?
I was just complaining to someone about this a couple of nights ago. It looks fucking retarded, and people should know better. If you can’t use the English language without butchering it, don’t use it at all.
The biggest grammatical error that has been bugging me lately is the declining use of the word doesn’t. Do people not realize they sound stupid when they use phrases such as, “it don’t matter”? The sad thing is I’ve been hearing people say it that I thought knew better, meaning it’s not just a hick thing. Most language errors don’t bother me when spoken like they do when written, but this is a case where the practice is ridiculous either way.
Actually put up is a verbal phrase. With is indeed a preposition. “This is some shit up with which I will not put,” is incorrect because it seperates put up which should be together. “This is some shit I will not put up with,” is incorrect because it seperates with from the object, or the conjunction in this case, which wasn’t even stated. It should be, “This is some shit with which I will not put up.” I can handle ending the sentence with a preposition though, but the first sentence looks ghastly.
Well, you can call it “laziness”. I’ll continue to call it “flavor”. The different levels of inflection and enunciation, coupled with word choice and sentence structure, give each person a unique and colorful way of speaking. Color is more interesting than rules.
Further, I suggest that there are far more important things than proper spelling, punctuation, syntax, and grammar. I work with some brilliant engineers, and every jack one of their memos is riddled with misspellings, split infinitives, case and tense shifts, and noun-verb disagreements. Despite their improper use of English, they communicate perfectly well. There is no doubt about what they mean. I, for one, am glad that they have spent their time studying in their respective fields instead of studying the nitpicks of proper English.
Written language does differ from spoken language, I’ll grant that. What then of the case of the OP? Internet chat is a new thing – is it simply another form of the written word, or is it another form of the spoken word? I submit that it is a written substitution for the spoken word.
What’s a non-artifical shift?
And I don’t buy the “lazy” explanation. I think people honestly don’t realize they are making a mistake.
May I also add the following:
“I need laid.”
No, you need to get laid.
“I feel you.”
No, you feel for me. If you FEEL me, there are some serious problems we need to discuss, as I think I’d notice.
Please, please, please don’t tell me there are THAT many people in the world who never, ever learned contractions? Because if they aren’t lazy, then they are remarkably uneducated. This is early grammar school stuff. What do they think “should of” MEANS? Because as we here know, it means nothing, a true nonsense phrase. (half a billion Google hits???)
Believing that most of these people don’t know better is truly scary. Let me cling to the idea that they are simply lazy.
If it makes you feel better, sure.
Not everyone paid attention in school, and lots of people who did simply forget. I actually do feel your pain on this kind of stuff, and it drives me crazy when people make what seems to be a silly mistake, but the fact is… languanges change.
My stepfather does, and my mother picked it up from him.
Speaking of “of”… what does “9 of 4” mean when telling time? Is it 9 minutes after 4 or 9 minutes until 4?
Isn’t Nine of Four a member of the Borg Collective?
Coffee Manic: Further, I suggest that there are far more important things than proper spelling, punctuation, syntax, and grammar. I work with some brilliant engineers, and every jack one of their memos is riddled with misspellings, split infinitives, case and tense shifts, and noun-verb disagreements. Despite their improper use of English, they communicate perfectly well. There is no doubt about what they mean.
Bully for them, but that doesn’t prove that spelling, punctuation, syntax and grammar aren’t important. It just shows that some people are smart enough to communicate clearly even while using them incorrectly. It’s actually far harder to write clear, comprehensible prose in bad (i.e., grammatically inconsistent) English than in conventional English.
Prescriptive language rules exist to provide consistent guidelines for communication and to make its meaning unambiguous. Just because some brilliant engineers have enough natural linguistic intelligence and “ear” to communicate successfully while breaking the rules doesn’t mean that the rules are unimportant.
Coffee Manic: The different levels of inflection and enunciation, coupled with word choice and sentence structure, give each person a unique and colorful way of speaking. Color is more interesting than rules.
Pfffft. IMO, this sort of radical descriptivism is the “pantywaist limousine liberalism” of linguistics. You sound like the caricature “liberal elitist populist” cooing about how urban graffiti is a gritty and authentic artistic statement, and gang culture is a healthy affirmation for the dispossessed, and poverty-level subsistence farming is the crucial preservation of traditional folkways, etc. etc. In reality, of course, the people who actually have to live in those underprivileged environments suffer from them in many ways, and the condescending “elitist populists” would be horrified at the thought of living like that themselves.
Similarly, for all your advocacy of linguistic “uniqueness” and “color”, Coffee Manic, you write awfully conventionally yourself when it comes to grammar and spelling. I don’t see you colorfully and interestingly expressing yourself with comments like “Everybody they shold writes english in they’re own way in speling and grammer doesn’t matter, your should of been saying how you want is the mots important.”
Sneering at linguistic usage rules as trivial is all very well for people who’ve mastered them, and for people who have enough innate linguistic talent to communicate successfully “by ear” without following the rules. However, there are lots of people who just aren’t gifted that way, and for whom expressing themselves clearly in written form without the guidance of proper grammar is a real struggle. For those people, their “unique and colorful way of speaking” just makes it harder for others to understand them, and harder to get taken seriously in communication. You aren’t doing those people any favors by pretending that linguistic rules don’t matter.
Yes, well, you sound like a fucking jerk, Kimstu.
I’ve never said anything about gangs or vandalism or poverty being good things. To equate what I said with such things makes you a liar, no matter what terms you couch your lies in, and an asshole.
Fuck off.