Nuances and Idiosyncrasies of the English Language
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I think if we’re honest with ourselves, we find it very hard not to include the serial comma in corresponding speech: try saying “lock, stock, and two smoking barrels” (which, btw, is not how the fools wrote the title) without corresponding pauses for the commas. You’ll find it difficult and it will sound odd.
That proves my point beyond the unassailable logic offered already—not only does the Oxford comma remove ambiguity, it reflects how the sentence is spoken, which is the ultimate aim of grammatical syntax.
Similarly, “my parents, Alice, and Bob” is spoken differently than “my parents: Alice and Bob” (no pause at the semicolon here) and the syntax should reflect that difference. “My parents, Alice and Bob” doesn’t reflect it and I think that’s why it just looks off to me.
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I have no idea what an Oxford Comma is, Paule will know, but if I ask her I will get a long-winded answer, my eyes will glaze over and I won't remember a thing she said.
I write like I speak. If I would do a short pause when speaking, I will put a comma there. A long pause gets a full stop. Those are my personal rules, and I am happy with them...(3 or more full stops equals even longer pause of total pause)
Sorry if it makes reading my shite even more shite.
"OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011
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Yep agreed and that’s the random thought I just added above that sprung uninvited in my insomniac head.
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How about “would of” where “would’ve” is the intent? Fingernails on a chalkboard
Think it, be it.
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I live in Texas and we have the city of Houston, pronounced “Hews-ton”
In New York City they have a “Houston Street”, pronounced “House-ton”.I don’t know why
New England’s also tend to say “standing on line” vs “standing in line”.
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@tody I think perhaps being a native speaker you fall prey to phonetics, and “would’ve” sounds somewhat like a lazy “would of.”
That and a lot of Americans are really, really dumb, so it never occurs to them that “would of” doesn’t make any kind of sense. You’re taking about people who forced the language to have the word “literally “ indicate its polar opposite, which rendered the word meaningless but unfortunately fell short of creating a species-ending rift in the space time continuum.
Another common one is “I could care less.” Oh? How much less could you care? (The turn of phrase is supposed to be “I couldn’t care less”).
Think it, be it.
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Irregardless of people being really dumb, for all intensive purposes, they just don't care.
And yes, I'm using the above sentence to share two other words/phrases that make me cringe when I hear them.
In some respects, I'm fine with the lexicon evolving, even if it breaks rules that were once considered standard like not breaking infinitives or ending phrases with prepositions; both of which seem to be fully accepted practice today.
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@mclaincausey said in Nuances and Idiosyncrasies of the English Language:
I couldn’t care less
Which is all we know in UK
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I feel like the Oxford Comma argument is just extremely frustrating, because in my head at least, both options have ways of making sense. I'd actually argue that the inclusion of the comma feels less conversational, adding a sort of unnecessary pause that could feel almost theatrical. That said, using it when writing ultimately just came to make sense to me.
Writing conversationally is a big thing, though — I do that a lot and see no problem with it. I think you can be that way and also be a stickler for grammar in other situations. It's just preference.
"Should of" is just unforgivable in my eyes, like I take a person down several intelligence rungs in my mind if I see them write it. I also had a coworker that said "makes since" instead of "sense" and man... I get irritable just thinking about it.
Had an ex who said "I feel badly" constantly and I was so happy to say goodbye to that (and other things) when our relationship ended.
"Between you and I" UGH.
The obscure one that makes me nuts is "chomping at the bit." Sounds weird, but it's "champing."
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Like I said above, that third comma is spoken as a pause when you’re listing more than two items. Try to not pause before the last list item in that scenario: “I have pen and pencil ready” (no pause) versus “I have pen, pencil, and eraser ready” (pauses at each comma). I really should have made that the primary argument because it’s even more sound than the syntactic arguments; my background in computer science and studying linguistics in that as well as English academic contexts kind of weighted my arguments towards logic and syntax where really it’s as simple as mirroring the spoken word correctly.
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Oh yeah I don't correct people — my dad screwed me up enough doing that shit to me. Luckily I've come to know better than to make other people feel responsible for my own neuroses.
Note: I edited this post enough to be like "hm probably should schedule a therapy appointment"
