Klarinet Archive - Posting 000222.txt from 1999/05

From: "B. Keplinger" <bcaslin@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Coughy, or ti?
Date: Sat, 8 May 1999 03:35:42 -0400

Original (excerpted) post:
>> ....if you really want to rip at someone for how they choose to type
>> the format of an email then log on to aol and look at the new jargon
>> popping up every day...........it must be ok (oh excuse me i forgot to
>> put periods in, o.k. and capitalize I).....obviously someone thinks
>> the jargon is ok becuz lol is now in the dctnry......
>
>[snip]
>
>> just my 2 sense (no i didnt mean cents)

Tony's reply:
>Notice, however, that your final joke only works because we have
>conventions of spelling, even though you felt you had to explain it a
>little.
>
>We follow conventions usually in order to make things clearer, and the
>conventions of capitalisation, periods and paragraphing exist for that
>reason...

[snip]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! A THOUSAND thank yous.
We daily cheapen the language in our speech, but what is tolerable in the
spoken word becomes intolerable when written, even in this informal medium.
Now, here's a question for you. How does one pluralize a phrase, for
instance "thank you?" To use an apostrophe ("thank you's") makes me
cringe. Now, I don't know about England, but on *this* side of the pond,
the apostrophe is flung about with abandon: "Susans chair's," for example.
Print adds and sale flyers are the worst, but it is creeping in everywhere,
even in the printed material of symphonies and theaters. )This latter case
particularly astounds me, dealing as it does with the written word.)
And then there is the "her and I" dilemma. I work for someone who, in the
same breath, will say "him and John did something" and "she gave it to John
and I." AAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If any of you remain unconvinced of the value of grammatical conventions,
consider what it would be like reading a foreign language with all the
punctuations, accents, etc., left out. There are more than a few on this
list for whom English is not their (not correct, I know; keep reading...)
primary language, and lest we loose them entirely, it behooves us natives
to use the language to the best of our abilities.
So, I guess I have gotten off the track of my original question (how to
make a plural of a phrase). What would *you* say, Tony? And while we're
on the subject, I have adopted the use of "their" in favor of the correct
but cumbersome "his and her." I guess I feel that the language can support
the occasional intentional misuse of a word if clarity succinctness is
gained by it (as Tony said), and such a change often eventually becomes
correct. But as Tony stressed, conventions exist for a reason.
Do these sorts of things bother anyone else, or are we lovers of language
just an anomaly?
-Bruce

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