# Where should we draw the line on misused words? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 6, 2005, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-should-we-draw-the-line-on-misused-words/283364 "2005-01-06T08:55:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Smartass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Smartass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smartass)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-should-we-draw-the-line-on-misused-words/283364/61 "2005-01-12T05:57:54Z")
> [@cricetus](#): > > Wodehouse was a master of the misplaced modifier. Bertie Wooser “smokes a pensive cigarette,” or “takes a moody mouthful of egg.” Of course it’s a planful breaking of the rules, and requires knowing the rules to be effective. And I, for one, like the effect. I like this phrase: “…requires knowing the rules to be effective.” To me, this is a pretty key point. There _are_ rules of grammar and usage, and they are subject to change over time. I don’t sweat too much over people breaking the rules, but I think that they should be _aware_ that they are breaking them. It seems to me that we are a raising a great many kids into adults without having managed to teach them fluency in their native tongue. And then we have the nerve to complain about their failure to speak it correctly. -VM ---
**Author:** ![Sample\_the\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Sample\_the\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sample_the_Dog)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-should-we-draw-the-line-on-misused-words/283364/62 "2005-01-12T06:15:13Z")
Ok, can we at least agree that there are: 1. Rules of grammar, which describe what is allowed and not allowed in a given language, and 2. Standards, which describe what is allowed in certain situations such as academic papers, SDMB, etc. … and that these are not the same thing? Examples of violations of the rules of English grammar: “This yes that it is.” “As is to cardigans, they are in style now not much.” Examples of violations of standards: In a college-level paper: “If one was to explore it’s origins, you would find…” The Great Debates forum of SDMB: “You c_ **g m** _ **g b** \*\*\*d” If we can’t agree to that much, then we’re going to talk at cross-purposes forever. ---
**Author:** ![Puffs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c77e96/32.png) [@Puffs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Puffs)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-should-we-draw-the-line-on-misused-words/283364/63 "2005-01-12T07:22:44Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > I grimace when I hear, “That movie was _so_ cool! Let’s go get dinner.” The word “so” is not a synonym for “very.” No, but it is an indication to the degree of coolness. ---
**Author:** ![Puffs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c77e96/32.png) [@Puffs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Puffs)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-should-we-draw-the-line-on-misused-words/283364/64 "2005-01-12T07:30:06Z")
> [@Puffs](#): > > No, but it is an indication to the degree of coolness. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Sample\_the\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Sample\_the\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sample_the_Dog)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-should-we-draw-the-line-on-misused-words/283364/65 "2005-01-12T12:54:23Z")
As an addendum to my previous post, I’d like to also assert that speech/writing can be confusing, vague, or unintelligible regardless of standard, dialect, or register. I’ve read too many academic articles and doctoral theses that use high-falutin’ language to mask a nearly complete lack of coherent thought. As Hugh Kenner once said of such a piece of work, “That was a whole lot o’ nothin’.” ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-should-we-draw-the-line-on-misused-words/283364/66 "2005-01-12T13:30:13Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > I grimace when I hear, “That movie was _so_ cool! Let’s go get dinner.” The word “so” is not a synonym for “very.” Yes it is. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2005, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-should-we-draw-the-line-on-misused-words/283364/67 "2005-01-12T13:42:37Z")
> [@Sample\_the\_Dog](#): > > I’ve read too many academic articles and doctoral theses that use high-falutin’ language to mask a nearly complete lack of coherent thought. Sweet Jesus, yes. I remember most clearly an article on postmodern architecture that I struggled through in college; every sentence was an agony. At one point he mentioned a building “whose putative volume is ocularly quite undecidable.” I read that about half a dozen times before looking up and shouting to my housemate, “_You can’t figure out the goddamn size of the building by looking at it!_” And that’s one of the **better** examples: at least the thought behind it was coherent. There were other sections I could never decode, and I suspect that was deliberate on the author’s part. On the other hand, as a writing tutor in college I discovered that a lot of students were using Jack Kerouackian prose to mask their lack of anything to say, and these folks were far harder to work with: their indecipherable twaddle was **art** , dammit, and they didn’t need no Agent of the Man telling them to put a comma here and remove a clause there. There was one fellow whom I forbid from using metaphor until he could figure out how to put the subject of a sentence near the front of the sentence. He’d write things like, “It was floating beyond the depraved river that entering into my ears the harmonious vibrations of the spotted thitzgrackle, so sweetly.” Only worse. Daniel [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-should-we-draw-the-line-on-misused-words/283364.md?page=3)