uh-oh, here we go again!

quote:

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Originally posted by Bravus:
I think I sense a mixed martial arts cage match coming on: rhetorical jiujitsu vs judo-christianity... FIGHT!

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That's a total set up for the biggest fight of all time:

"In this corner, weighing in at an impressive 650lbs... the KING of BEIJING!!!... THE BUUUUUUDDDDDHHHHAAAAA!!!!."

[obligatory crowd uproar here]

"And in this corner, weighing in at a mere 98lbs... the savior of mankind... The FLAYA' of JUDEA!!!!... JESUS CCHRIIIIIIIST!!!."

[more obligatory uproar]

(I'm so going to hell for this)

i kick arse for the lord

I kick ass for Tofu and Animal Rights.

Aside from that, before we go off on a tangent, what happened to this thread? I post only last night, and suddenly... it's blossomed into chaos!!

Hoorah. I like chaos.
Or as some might say..

"HuZZah!1 i LiEk c|-|405!111loLZ"

OK, here's a slightly more obscure one. The example that reminded me of it: "The Washington Post's Electoral College map is a somewhat slower-moving and subjective affair..."

To my ear, it should say 'slower-moving and more subjective': if there's a comparative on the first thing joined by the 'and', there should be one on the second. Lots of North American writers, though, do it like the one in the example.

I live in Germany, and most of you guys should be lucky that you only have to analyze the English language (including all these dialects). But german grammar and spelling is sometimes so weird and it doesn't make any sense you're bound to make mistakes. Oh, and about dialects, I'm very happy that I live in an area without a lot of people who speak them.
I just hate it when people say "wie" but when they actually mean "als" (in German).

But I have to agree that a lot of the teens today (whether it's German, English or whatever language) have serious trouble when it comes to grammar and spelling.

Edit:
My explanation for the difference of US English and British English is that most people who went to the former British colony were poor people. At least they weren't rich Brits. It's proven that poorer people usually speak a slightly different English than the richer ones. (We still have this today.) So the American language developed from the, let's say "lower" British English wheras the British English was more influenced by the upper class.

quote:

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My explanation for the difference of US English and British English is that most people who went to the former British colony were poor people. At least they weren't rich Brits. It's proven that poorer people usually speak a slightly different English than the richer ones. (We still have this today.) So the American language developed from the, let's say "lower" British English wheras the British English was more influenced by the upper class.

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You English(and French)-speaking people correct me, but it really doesn't seem to be the case. Lots of words and phrases known from Shakespeare, Marlowe, Moliere and other late-baroque authors seems to have survived on the American continent, and while these authors were obviously able to write the language of the lower classes, this was hardly the essence of their vocabulary.
My favorite English is the Declaration of Independance. (If we leave out a few verses from The Tempest..). Hardly a working class document, either.

quote:

Originally posted by vecna:
I feel like a victim of rhetorical jujitsu.

I know there's other threads about language peeves, but all eight pages of this hurt my kidneys. Especially that gold line, Vecna. I'm sig-jacking it.

One of my small peeves is the mistaking "to" for "too". As in, your pants are to short too hide your butt.

I'm not sure whether I mentioned this before, and I don't have the time or the kidneys to re-read the 8 pages, but the fact that Nortamericanos pronounce 'do' and 'due' so that they sound the same (Aussies pronounce them as 'doo' and 'dyoo'), means that I get students writing that they didn't have the right equipment so they just had to 'make due' with something else.

Not all North Americans do that. In the U.S., pronunciation of due is a common linguistic tip-off to regional origins and education level.