• Dran@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Spelling and grammar are important. Language is only as useful as it is commonly and uniformly understood.

    • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      Agreed. Purposeful ignorance of spelling and grammar is basically saying to the person you’re typing to “I’m too lazy to learn simple concepts so you’ll have to spend extra time trying to parse my sentences”

        • DigitalPaperTrail@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          90% of the time I see grammar nazis doing their thing, it’s never about protecting the “sanctity” of grammar - it’s more about exerting control and attempting to enjoy the feeling of being right.

          The other 10% of the time are from people that know its purpose is to be a vehicle for the communication of ideas, and will also make up statistics.

          I love me some irony, and felt this comment train was more engaging than the post itself; so I’m contributing to its further development.

          • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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            1 year ago

            Yep, all good. Though in no way was I being a grammar Nazi, I was stating my opinion. I don’t bother with perfect punctuation because it’s not necessary to be instantly readable.

            Also, my nephew told me that putting a full stop at the end of a sentence now is sometimes seen as a bit rude 😅 No idea why, but that’s ok, it’s still just as readable

            • DigitalPaperTrail@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              Yeah, I heard mention about periods at the end of chat, comments, and txts make them seem more rude, since it’s supposed to be a more informal form of communication. I take it as them interpreting it as the sender being overly formal and strict, and dictating, as the reader is reading it in their mind, where the end of the message is.

              Instead of letting them read it with an open invitation for a reply at the end, it communicates the sender doesn’t want to continue further down the topic - it adds a sense of finality to the thought when the person reads it, internally. It’s definitely something in language that’s part of a generational divide formed completely by the media it’s being conveyed in.

              Did an internet search after hearing it, and came across articles that bring it up; like https://www.npr.org/2020/09/05/909969004/before-texting-your-kid-make-sure-to-double-check-your-punctuation and https://writingcooperative.com/gen-z-hates-the-full-stop-47dde5ec2b5c

              • DigitalPaperTrail@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                Also, unrelated to my wall-o-txt, I can’t get over my love of kbin’s transparency of upvotes and downvotes - after moving over, I can see exactly who is tossing them around. It prevents a whole lot of misunderstandings.

              • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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                1 year ago

                Though in almost the same sentence he said that “…” annoys him too. I find they have opposite meanings and he’s probably just a wee fanny

                • DigitalPaperTrail@kbin.social
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                  1 year ago

                  Yeah, he could be reading it the same as someone looking them straight in the face, judgmentally communicating “are you being dumb?”, when it could mean any number of things - like contemplating pensively or not knowing what to say.

                  The younger generation has had trouble with others watching and judging them in a lot of aspects in life - not just from real life interactions with the older gen, but also things like the constant barrage of being forcefully compared with peers on digital platforms that are incentivized to do so. It can manifest in a lot of aspects in interactions that leave them always feeling inadequate. Acting on that mindset, that could be how “…” can become a negative interaction instead of neutral.

                  More communication with you about it would probably help him untangle those signals, and learn to relax about it a little, though.

    • squiblet@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      That’s kind an argument for not caring about spelling and grammar. We can all tell what Xepp meant. The principle at hand is why linguists say that insisting on rigid grammar and spelling is pointless. Also, language evolves… otherwise we’d be saying thy and thou. Dialects other than the ‘prestige dialect’ spoken and written by people with the highest access to education are considered perfectly legitimate because all that matters is whether the listener can understand…

      • Dran@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Bill helped his brother, jack, off a horse.

        Bill helped his brother jack off a horse

        It doesn’t take much sometimes for a sentence to completely change meaning,l; at best we knew what he meant but struggled through it slightly.

      • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        I thought we were meant to be inclusive now? There’s a good chunk of us that literally can’t look past a sentence that’s like a car crash. It’s like an old vinyl record that’s got a scratch, our eyes keep jumping back to the horrible spelling and reading it again the same way you’d look at a dismembered corpse at the side of the road, despite not actually wanting to

        Inclusiveness for purists!!!