Surprise! My father showed up this weekend and was charming (as opposed to my mother, who was not, but that's another story, and not worth telling). In the discussion with my father, where we were congratulating each other that we Googled well, my father confessed that he has acquired quite a reputation among his colleagues as the Grammar Policeman.
I thought that particularly hilarious based on the timing of my last post. We must have spent a good ten minutes attempting to one-up each other with horrible common grammar and non-words. (I so wish I'd had some of the corkers from the comments in my last post! I had to take a hot shower after reading what you all wrote. You're all going to hell.) He physically recoiled from "orientate," as if I'd used a cattle prod.
Special highlights:
10 items or
should
he
if I
Guess I know where I get it.
- Current Mood:
giggly
Comments
So a very special Minionion of Typeset, perhaps. ;)
--Rhys.
Fellow Grammar Nerd
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003775.html
My degree is in communication, not grammar. I've looked at your blogs, and I stand in awe of your knowledge. I can't imagine how you found my post, or that anyone would care to read what I wrote. I am flattered beyond measure. But to take the things I write in any seriousness, well, that way madness lies. ;)
"Correct" grammar most often refers to "correct class speech," as in one is either one of "us," or one of "them," as indicated by subtle language choices. It doesn't have a damn thing to do with being "right" or "wrong." It has to do with being essentially "of the body, Llandru" (to use a Star Trek reference) and certainly, my entire upbringing was all about "we don't do that." You know, to this day, I still don't know who the hell "we" are. But you bet your ass I know what "we" do and do not say, that's for damn sure.
Your language blog rocks. How on earth did you find mine?