English Grammar
Watch this postHow important is the correct use of English grammar and punctuation to you on social networking sites? If you see something mis-spelt on Facebook are you itching to correct it, or does it not detract from the what you are reading?
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What I find somewhat amusing is that some people who express utter disdain for the grammatically challenged have spelling and syntax errors in their post/s.
Sometimes, those with a high and mighty tone are the ones whose grammar and spelling I'm tempted to correct. But I don't.
If we gradually erode English and say it does not matter, what on earth are we going to end up with?
English grammar seems to be losing its importance to young people, I wonder what sort of a language English will become in future years.
If telepathy becomes the order of the day that would be disastrous, what would happen when a lady asks you if a dress suits her, you know you would make a diplomatic reply but your brain waves immediately shoot back a reply that it looks ridiculous.
In the matter of grammar maybe I am becoming a grumpy old man, but I remember the unintentionally humourous cry that went up when we went decimal,' why can't they wait until all the old people are dead'?
As we know, language is primarily functional, intent on getting across a message. Because of our socialisation and nostalgic preference for stylistic (considered ‘correct’) usage, we often think that our precious ‘standard English’ is a fixed entity and must not be allowed to wither. But, knowing that spoken and written language is always subject to organic change, I can let go my former frustrations at the blatant non-standard use of the apostrophe or with those who display a happy ignorance of non-countable nouns and insist on ‘less’ rather than ‘fewer’.
The Bard of Avon’s double negative tendency helps one to smile at this insistence of we ‘oldies’ on ‘correct English’. If my comments have offended, think but this and all is mended. …That we have but slumbered here …for a while, within our time specific ‘standard English’ period. I suspect that within a few hundred years, the apostrophe will have become redundant. Text speak suggests that meaning is conveyed principally by contextual references. Prhps vwls 2 wll nt b nccsry. The aesthetic value of such developments may not thrill we who once lovingly embraced our irregular past participles, subjunctive moods and verb complements but, the culture will move on without taking any of our admonishments to heart.
My grandchildren use text speak all the time and do not really bother about grammatical correctness. Their view is ' can I be understood' ; if so that is fine. I wrote a legal response for my 40 year old daughter last week and she then toned down the grammar as she said people would find it over fussy and it would lose impact. Probably right.
English changes constantly and today it is about being understood rather than any formal grammar or even formal English. Just go with the flow and accept we are old school and that someday your grandchildren will be old school and complaining about the next generation's use of Artificial Intelligence to do everything including writing.