Are you a grammar nazi or language snob?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

One of my groups of friends and I play at correcting one another's grammar when we slip up. Sometimes we even harass teachers (the better-natured ones, mind you!) on grammar slip-ups--leaving dangling prepositions, incorrect usage of "who"/"whom," etc. I would therefore call myself a good-natured grammar nazi. Certainly poor grammar irritates me--there's no point in using the English language if you aren't going to respect its developed usage. I do respect people who have a hard time with grammar because of a learning disability or something, but lazy people--pah! Lazy people on a message board are one breed, but lazy people in so-called "professional" writing deserve to be...something. I'll let you know when I figure it out. :P

What about you?

[crim son]

1. Define "language snob" please. n/t

[WritingIsMyReligion]

2. Oh, you know, those of us who use high-fallutin' vocabulary.

People give me strange looks when I start talking about the wanton bohemianism that occurs in my writing, for instance. :P

[Left Is Write]

40. "Falutin'" only has one l.

[Orsino]

3. Kinda.

I get irritated by clumsy or ignorant misuse of language, especially when it's me! I'm all for democracy, though, so I don't want to silence people just because our system failed to educate them. I think I've given up on ridiculing people's grammar--except maybe, maybe, when grammatical ignorance is matched by willful ignorance in other areas, or by bigotry.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

4. Yes, that's kind of what I think, as well.

Outright butchering of the language by native speakers who ought to have had a decent education is what really irritates me. :D

[Karenina]

16. Errraaa... "...especially when it's me!"

I DO believe your sentence should read "...especially when it is I!" (personal pronoun after the verb "to be." But then again, virtually NO ONE speaks or writes that way and people tend to look at you funny...

[Esra Star]

27. Orsino sounds righter than you does.

[Omphaloskepsis]

5. I will mock you when you fuck up on your math homework...

I won't pay when you fuck up on mine.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

6. I always fuck up on math homework.

I hate math most of the time. It irritates me. No, I do NOT fucking care, particularly, about "The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra" and its application with synthetic division and finding the non-real zeros of a polynomial. All i's can go fuck themselves.

:P

[immoderate]

21. I applaud what you and your friends are doing.

I had a similar thing going with my high school friends, and I learned much of what I know about grammar, vocabulary, etiquette, and even math from those encounters.

Speaking of the math, don't neglect the benefits. If I asked you what math is, besides a headache, you might not have a ready definition. The one I use is, "a system of manipulating symbols to solve problems." With that in mind, you might want to think about how much of your intellectual activity falls under that definition. It's math, but you may not think of it as such, because it's natural to you.

Now about those is...it's a bit more abstract, but it does apply to the real world. As an intellectual, it is your task to explore your portion of the universe, and observing patterns, and comprehending the logic of the world are part of the mathematical repertoire of tools that you carry. Consider the Mandelbrot set, a pattern of fractals generated by a recurring operation on a number in the complex plane. It generates images like this:


The last one is a picture of the whole set. The others are portions under magnification. (Actually the first one is part of the Julia set, a subset.) The point here is that there a resemblance between what occurs from a simple mathematical algorithm and what appears in the chaos and complexity of nature around us, (not to mention the aesthetics and why that works.)

Why learn about it? You know the many answers to that. So do your math homework, and eat your vegetables! ;-) And keep up the challenge with your friends. It's like a rolling study group. Good minds don't confine their learning to school time. But you know that.

--IMM

[poiuytsister]

7. Absolute grammar Nazi

because I are a college graduate I believe everyone should talk good.






(Yes, that is a joke.)

[1gobluedem]

8. Yes

And I point out errors in grammar, spelling, vocabulary, punctuation and everything else to my student employees even if they're in e-mails, my theory being that the sloppiness will carry over into professional writing as well.

[CBHagman]

37. And don't get me started on punctuation!

Editing and proofreading are part of my job, as it happens, and I now automatically proof everything I read, from The New York Times to e-mails. :-(

But I don't carry a red pencil. :-)

[Wapsie B]

9. Neither. I'm the spelling gestapo.

;-)

[Rabrrrrrr]

15. Gestapo is capitalized. I can't take seriously anything you said in that post.

:popcorn:

:hide:


:hi: bushwentawol!!

[Wapsie B]

19. ........

:hi: Rabrrrrrr!!


:rofl:

[Guava Jelly]

10. No because I suck in both departments

:dunce:

[GoneOffShore]

11. I am both.

I generally find that a lack of precision in the use of language invariably shows a lack of precision in thought. Spelling errors irritate me beyond measure.

[Maineiac]

12. Noooooo, math is our friend

Combine number theory with basic probability and simple card counting techniques and you can tip the blackjack scales in your favor. Of course your life will be threatened and you will get banned from every casino in the world, but you'll need a wheel barrow to cart your winnings to the bank.

[Rabrrrrrr]

14. Welcome to DU! But I think you need to learn how to post in the right thread.

Seems you slipped up here.

:hi:

[sammythecat]

24. Possums in the wild seldom live more than a couple years

:rofl:

I hope you eventually found your way back. It sounds interesting. Most especially that part about wheelbarrows of cash.

Here's another welcome to DU :toast: and that's a cool username you've got there.

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. Nazi is capitalized. I can't take seriously anything you said in that post.

:popcorn:

:hide:

[Omphaloskepsis]

17. Dude, it is Naziiiiii....

Hitler...

[ellisonz]

23. Just like Holocaust...

:cry:

[Rabrrrrrr]

29. Only when in reference to the jewish genocide

Otherwise, it's just holocaust.

:hi:

[ellisonz]

34. Don't you mean Jewish?

There's a reason we capitalize it... never again. Holocaust and genocide were never really intended to be synonymous, especially after 1945.

Just sayin'

:hi:

Edit: for proper slang punctuation.

[Rabrrrrrr]

35. D'oh! Dammit!! But holocaust is not always capitalized -

Only when referring to the WWII-era genocide of the Jews is it so.

It's still a regular word, as it has been for centuries.

[ellisonz]

39. Didn't you hear, we're chosen. Been that way since c.62 A.D.

Actually, in terms of literal meaning of the word holocaust the word genocide doesn't compare. And that's not to sell genocide short, simply to acknowledge the exceptional nature of that horror (and no I'm not forgetting the Gypsys, gays, disabled/mentally impaired, political victims.)

Main Entry: ho·lo·caust
Pronunciation: 'hO-l&-"kost, 'hä- also -"käst or 'ho-l&-kost
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Late Latin holocaustum, from Greek holokauston, from neuter of holokaustos burnt whole, from hol- + kaustos burnt, from kaiein to burn -- more at CAUSTIC
1 : a sacrifice consumed by fire
2 : a thorough destruction involving extensive loss of life especially through fire <a nuclear holocaust>
3 a often capitalized : the mass slaughter of European civilians and especially Jews by the Nazis during World War II -- usually used with the b : a mass slaughter of people; especially : GENOCIDE

x(

[Rabrrrrrr]

46. I'm not sure of your point here -

I do agree with you, though, that the word "genocide" doesn't do justice to the specific case of the Nazi's destruction of Jews and others they disagreed with. I also like the Hebrew word "Shoah" for that event.

But beyond saying holocaust is a better word than genocide in this instance, I'm not sure what you are saying in your post.

:shrug:

[skygazer]

18. Well, I don't consider either definition accurate

But it does grate on me when I see or hear poor grammar and language usage, particularly in a book or article. I've stopped reading several books because of the poor writing skills used, even though the basic concept was interesting. But I do try hard not to point out people's mistakes here - some people simply don't feel it's important but others may have trouble with English or learned it as a second language.

As for being a language snob, I love using odd, rarely used or archaic words and phrases, not because they make me look smart but because I love words and think it's unfortunate that so many are used so infrequently. I like to trot them out to give them some exercise and fresh air, so to speak. So I don't think that's snobby - I prefer to look at it as giving equal time. :P

[Rabrrrrrr]

20. Geez, talk about being orotund.

:eyes:

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[skygazer]

22. Thank you

O8)

[reyd reid reed]

25. Lazy language professionals

need to be hoisted and strangled by their own dangling participles.

Can't we be both language snobs AND grammar nazis?

Can we, can we, pleeeeeaaase???

[RevolutionaryActs]

26. I aint be knowin' what you talk about.

:rofl:

[spinbaby]

28. Yes

And proud of it.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

42. Yes and proud of it. For native speakers.

My kid was really impressed when I told her that pandaemonium was Greek for "wall to wall demons" and to defenestrate somebody was to throw them out a window, from fenestra, Latin for window.

So glad I took 2 years of Latin in high school. Useful stuff for correcting the asinine hoi polloi re their vernacular.

[grannylib]

30. I confess to being both, at times. I try not to overdo the vocabulary

just because it can be pretentious and snooty-sounding, when for me it's more of a challenge to stretch my own vocabulary for my own pleasure...
I am definitely a grammar/punctuation/spelling/usage nazi, and nothing irritates me more than a mistake of my own that I've overlooked in proofing.

[nosillies]

31. Oh yes ma'am

It is a natural result of having an English degree/having worked in education/writing for a living.

I will say I rarely correct anyone because I try my damndest not to be annoying, and because I usually get paid good money to correct poor grammar, so I don't put out for free. Instead, when I hear bad grammar, I just cringe on the inside and wish I could go lick a 9 volt or chew tin foil or do something more fun like that.

I do have to deal with corporate-types via email from time to time, and it amazes me how some people manage to get really high-paying jobs without the ability to string together a simple sentence.

But there is a time and a place for casualness, and message boards are certainly casual. My editor once tried to get me to end a sentence with a preposition, though, in order to keep a more "casual" tone in my column, and I just couldn't do it.

But we all slip up from time to time. When my editor has to correct my grammar, I go hide in a corner and cry (not really, but I do berate myself).

But thank you for your attention to detail, WIMR -- your posts are always so much more enjoyable and easy-to-read than some!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

32. I tend to be a grammar Nazi.

I teach a couple of undergrad courses at a local college, and I'm just amazed at how poorly a lot of students write, even as college juniors and seniors. Many of them can't seem to string a correct sentence together. They use "there" when they should use "their" or "they're"; they don't understand the difference between "its" (possessive) and "it's" (contraction); they mix up plurals and possessives; and they haven't grasped the simplest rules of punctuation. It drives me nuts.

On the other hand, the very worst writer I know is a guy at work. This character scrupulously observes the rules of grammar -- his subjects and verbs agree; his plurals don't have apostrophes; he spells everything correctly -- but his writing style is so pompous and convoluted, even in ordinary office e-mails, that it's almost impossible to figure out what he's trying to say. He writes as if he were an unusually pedantic college professor in the middle of the nineteenth century. He never uses a short, simple word if he can find one with at least three syllables, and he delights in the use of the subjunctive and passive voices. You read his stuff and you think... "Huh...?" He's a freaking idiot and a pompous ass. Frankly, I'll take the grammatically-challenged but honest undergrad any time.

[graywarrior]

33. I'm a copy editor, so I notice poor grammar, but I don't care enough to care.

[Mojambo]

36. No, but I probably won't let people with poor grammar hide out in my attic either. n/t

[Generic Brad]

38. I let it slide

My wife is a foreign national and I have many employees who are not native speakers. If I was a stickler on grammar and proper noun usage, very few people in my life would take the time to speak with me.

Language is a communication tool. As long as the meaning is conveyed, that is all I am interested in.

[Left Is Write]

41. I'm obnoxiously pedantic.

Or pedantically obnoxious.

[Awsi Dooger]

43. In a few areas

I refuse to open any thread with a person referred to as that, as in, "Name the person that influenced you the most."

Unnecessary apostrophes or possessives also drive me nuts, as in the 1970's.

[GaYellowDawg]

44. You're fine with respect to grammar.

However, you may get cited by the Punctuation Police.

This post was edited for humor.

[regnaD kciN]

45. Well, let's put it this way...

...at one of the places at which I used to work, I was known as "Conan the Grammarian"... ;-)

[bridgit]

47. Contemporaneously I trend toward colloquial, though find in many cases...

where people may consider themselves grammar nazi' and/or language snob'; that those...character traits, are themselves harboring a generalized disdain for a range of behaviors they further consider well beneath their perceived stations in life,

Sadly, it is little but yet another way for they to further 'get up on this', while it is they exhibit with a Pilgrim's Pride their, again, picayune disdain for the common good