What grammatical errors bug you the most?

by poppers 95 Replies latest jw friends

  • Pole
    Pole

    Orbison,

    double negatives drive me nuts

    many have said i speak the 'queen's engilsh', mostly older ones though, as most younger have no idea what it is :)

    From what I remember from my course in the history of English, the "ban" on double negative was an artificial invention of the 18th century prescriptive linguists. So if you really care about being conservative, you might want to reconsider using double negative.

  • orbison11
    orbison11

    good point well taken, pole

    lol

    orbi

  • shotgun
    shotgun

    Farkel...I liked this point best

    The existence of the WTS as an organization depends upon the proper insertion of a comma as I've just shown.

    I think the existence of the WTS depended on the rectal cranial inversion pulled off by Russell and Rutherford...not the insertion of the comma...besides..like you said...the whole thing is BS anyway.

  • Netty
    Netty
    even while I was an active JWS, I was not very interested in studying , I just wanted to underline the WT. I have grown as a person since then, but I find I get brain strain from the trying to figure out how the WTS could take the Bible and twist it so. I get headaches from remembering the Babylon the Great book studies (was it 3 or 4 times we went through it?) I did not understand most of it then, and still do not

    I feel exactly the way you do. We used to have to study with encyclopedias, dictionaries, all kinds of wts literature, in addition to the watchtower and bible. All from a ridiculously young age. Like you, I would get headaches, and get so frustrated for not understanding. As a child I had no choice in the matter. So, as an adult, I choose not to get involved in the threads where they split hairs about teachings and doctrines.(more power to the people who can, and I know they have helped others with their insight on things, this is a good thing, and it is wonderful that those who can do it, keep doing it) It's about not wanting to go back to an unpleasant place, thats all. It doesn't mean we are mentally inferior, or clueless, just if we have our own different reasons for coming to this board. Mine is more for the sharing of personal experiences, and finding I have so much in common with other former JW's.

  • dh
    dh

    i absolutely can't stand those people who refuse to use capital letters, they don't even use a capital 'i', it's ridiculous, how difficult is it to press the shift key... i think it boils down to sheer laziness, typing whole sentences and even paragraphs in lower case! pfffff

    dh of the 'it wasn't me' class

  • ezekiel3
    ezekiel3
    I must be dealing with either the most clueless people on this earth, or just plain idiots.

    I'll volunter fer both. One thing I like to do is, when Im at an friends house, is to go in to there Word program under Tools and than AutoCorrect and mess with the options. Like when they type a word right like JEHOVAH than it'll chnage it to SATAN, and than its gonna make em think that the demons are in there computer and stuff.But its like that if they now that, than the'll think their is'nt no way they could be getting a demon attack becuase they didn't see Lord of the Rings or anything. But you got to axe Jehover for help by keeping calling on his Name. The bestest one I heared is where this JW goes 'I totaly throwed away all my kids Disney books cuase they were spritistic, and then they stopped havin night mares"! whatever you completly anul peeple.

  • Terry
    Terry

    I've noticed we all have a tolerance for our personal errors while loathing the ones in others we have mastered ourselves. I'm certainly no exception.

    Not paying attention to grammer is like playing a game and ignoring the rules; it is sloppy and often rude or unfair.

    You can tell something about a person by their personal means of expression.

    When you speak or write you are painting a portrait of yourself and what you value. The details you obscure or leave out say as much as the ones you include.

    I'm very petty privately inside my head about these things. I'm making personal judgements when somebody is talking to me. I am measuring and weighing like a butcher with a pound of pork loin.

    However, I hardly ever correct anybody anymore unless I really adore them. Then I regard the correction as kindness; like pointing out a tidbit of spinach stuck between their teeth.

  • Terry
    Terry

    POLE: From what I remember from my course in the history of English, the "ban" on double negative was an artificial invention of the 18th century prescriptive linguists. So if you really care about being conservative, you might want to reconsider using double negative.

    I don't not agree with you.

  • Terry
    Terry

    Stunkypints:

    It isn't kind to cultivate a friendship just so one will have an audience


    ~Lawana Blackwell

    Wow, I love that!

  • Pole
    Pole

    TERRY:

    I don't not agree with you.
    I don't see nothing that could justify your disagreement.
    Ok, I take it as a joke, but just in case there's something serious in your remark, I've done some research to check if I remembered correctly.

    Edited to add (Yes, I know that "I don't not agree" means "I do agree" ) :)

    Here is some evidence showing that I am right and you are wrong (Depending on what you meant to say :)). The rule "double negatives are really affirmatives" was artificially introduced in English - probably by Robert Lowth:

    -----------

    Example: I don't know nothing about that.

    This rule derives from Robert Lowth ("Two negatives? are equivalent to an affirmative") but is deeply entrenched in popular attitudes to language. It arises from confusing vernacular languages with logic or theory of number. Now the double negative is often used to signal an affirmative, but indirectly, as in that's not unreasonable. Aitchison finds a multiple (fourfold) negative for emphatic negation in Chaucer's General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Of the knight, we are told

    he never yet no vileynye ne sayde
    In al his lyf unto no maner wight

    (He never even no wicked thing not said in all his life to no kind of person).

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