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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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The Vocabula Review's ( http://www.vocabula.com/) slogan is: "A society is generally as lax as its language." What does that mean? At the same time, I often find myself fence-sitting between the pre- and descriptivists. Is there a name for this? OK, y'all in the peanut gallery, hush up.
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Joined: Jan 2004
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veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
At the same time, I often find myself fence-sitting between the pre- and descriptivists. Is there a name for this?
Prudent. Sensible. Infuriating.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>Is there a name for this?
wishy-washy -joe p. (knut) gallery
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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"A society is generally as lax as its language."
I like it. It's so nicely lax its own se'f. Doesn't say whether a lax language produces a lax society or a lax society a lax language.
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Joined: Mar 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
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Perhaps they both come from the same cause? The society lax education.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ugly is in the ear of the behearer. Someone recently went on a rampage against dawdle, comparing it to the sound of fingernails against a blackboard and "accept[ing] no excuses for" it when someone else said it was the perfect word for its job.
I generally don't mind people having adverse reactions to words; it's when they decide that the words in question should be stricken from the language that I object.
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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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generally don't mind people having adverse reactions to words
me neither, but I start to get concerned when they make social value judgements (invariably proclaiming their own superiority) based on a pertickly word or usage.
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Joined: Jun 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
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The objection to "dawdle" expressed above reminds me (irresistably, obviously) of watching "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" a couple of weeks ago. This guy, from Bedford (which could explain a lot, I suppose) was asked the question "What is the word for lazy, slow speech?". The options were something like (a) Crawl (b) Drawl (c) Trawl (d) Maul. This guy simply did not know it and had to phone a friend or ask the audience, can't remember which.
If it had simply been that question, well, everyone can't know everything, but he had "loser" all over him. He'd used up all his options by the time he got to £2000 and went home basically empty-handed/headed at that point.
Why do people put themselves through that kind of thing? I'd never enter something like that because I can't be bothered boning up on British sports (booooorrrrring) or British pop music (but I repeat myself).
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Faldage sez: "Then other words crop up to fill in the void and y'all complain about those."
And the Vicar replies: You are correct. I have no choice. It is right there on page 52 of the Curmudgeon's Job Description (2004 ed.).
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ah. Must is a rough life.
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