Verbing Weirds Language

בקטגוריות: Uncategorized

25 Jan 2004

Aaah….

7 תגובות על Verbing Weirds Language

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ravell

25 בJanuary, 2004 בשעה 05:07

the kid verbs well

!!!

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gaal

25 בJanuary, 2004 בשעה 06:36

Hobbes has da irony. Because in some circles “to language” is a verb too, and sometimes means (de facto, not nominally) “to obfuscate, to completely impede understanding”

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gryphonk

26 בJanuary, 2004 בשעה 09:36

Ah, this is why I love him

I’ve never read a more intelligent comic-strip.

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smugalug

26 בJanuary, 2004 בשעה 21:45

Down with linguistic tyranny!

OK, it’s a dishonest title that’s much more exciting than what I’m about to say.

I often wonder whether the creation and maintenance of a standardized language does more to impede or help people communicate.

I came to the conclusion that people who want to communicate, eventually find a way. People who don’t, pretend they do and get paid millions to do PR.

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yggdrasil

26 בJanuary, 2004 בשעה 22:23

Re: Down with linguistic tyranny!

Define “maintenance”.
Here in Israel, there is “The Academy of the Hebrew Language”. An official body of scholars who define the correct grammar, syntax and especially vocabulary of the Hebrew language.
I believe that Germany has a similar concept, though I can’t base that vague memory on anything.

English, however, tends to scatter and transform and mutate and adapt. Spoken in too many places, too many people, too many different cultures. It is talked in many places where it’s a second language, so it borrows from the local tongue. Because of this diversity, and because the US has a long tradition of not having long traditions (European-style), this has been allowed to grow and branch out until I think you can’t really point your finger at a True English.

Though maybe the Oxford English Dictionary tries.
Quotes from their site:
“The OED covers words from across the English-speaking world, from North America to South Africa, from Australia and New Zealand to the Caribbean. It also offers the best in etymological analysis and in listing of variant spellings, and it shows pronunciation using the International Phonetic Alphabet.”

Strange that they didn’t mention the UK there. *shrug*
Maybe I’ll buy myself one of those. Read it cover to cover. Should be fun.

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smugalug

27 בJanuary, 2004 בשעה 03:24

Re: Down with linguistic tyranny!

Maintenance – The construction of grammatical rules, teaching them in a standardized way, classification of some things as “slang”, and conversely the creation of “formal” or official language (writs, government documents…). The creation of things like the Academy Francais…

Well, I’m no linguist, so I could be very much mistaken.

English does seem to mutate rapidly and somehow insinuate itself into many other languages, but I do seem to remember that the usage of some American english (don’t remember which bits though) is more archaic than UK english. Something to do with the rate of evolution of languages being faster at the origin and at subsidiary branches. It might be slightly clearer to see the difference between Chinese in Taiwan and China. China adopted a “simplified” method of Chinese writing and has compressed many words, while Taiwan has not. then again I also seem to remember this was a particularly shaky hypothesis. Interesting, nonetheless.

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smugalug

27 בJanuary, 2004 בשעה 03:25

Re: Down with linguistic tyranny!

Something to do with the rate of evolution of languages being faster at the origin and at subsidiary branches.

Should read:

Something to do with the rate of evolution of languages being faster at the origin than at subsidiary branches.

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