Decline of Language

[Artic_counter]

Re: Decline of Language

I'm not too sure about this but I think it's laziness. As far as I, know there are hardly any grammar rules.

Compared to French that is xD

[who_cares973]

Re: Decline of Language

english grammar can suck a dick

[customstuff]

Re: Decline of Language

Seriously just saw this one someone's facebook wall.

"_______ .. YOUR ALOUD OVER TOMOROW . call me (number) or (number)"

[Emithith]

Re: Decline of Language

People seem like they have smaller vocabularies but in reality they're probably the same size as our parents, except full of different types of words.

I don't know whether or not to agree with this. I'm just gonna leave it sitting there. I DO know that when my mother tried to get me tested for ADD when I was about 11 they put me through some tests including an English test, and the one who gave the test said I had a Grade 12 Canadian Vocabulary. I didn't know half the words I know now. Which really worries me because it's only been about 3-4 years since then.

Seriously just saw this one someone's facebook wall.

"_______ .. YOUR ALOUD OVER TOMOROW . call me (number) or (number)"

I wouldn't worry about Facebook too much. If you try to change it you can only come out with an extreme anger for it. Though I have to admit I do feel like putting the keyboard through the monitor when people mess up in such a degree that makes it look like the teachers weren't teaching properly.

EDIT: I also cannot believe how stupid some advertisements are. FFS, I saw an ad that said "Want to Learn English?" I did NOT know you were supposed to capitalize Verbs. I thought it was only nouns. /sarcasm.

[u84]

Re: Decline of Language

Overall, I'd say that the typical American is unaware of their grammatical errors. In my experience, with the exception of texting and profile-chatting, errors are made unintentionally. The scary aspect of this is that upon being informed of their misuse of, say "too" instead of "two", for instance, most people will either shrug it off or actually grill you for correcting them.

It puts me at a state of great discontent when I stumble across a word that I require spell-check for in order to correctly use. Most people misspell every other 3+ syllable word without the slightest concern.

I also believe that it is our generation as a whole that has declined in vocabulary. Sure, we have our slang that older generations fail to pick up on, but the fact remains that our - new words - are either shortened derivations of real words or a combination of real words. The general conversation fifty years ago was most definitely far more advanced than today's and the same can be said for fifty years before that.

If it weren't for the technology today, I'd go as far as to say we were a generation of stupid people entirely. In truth, we just have a larger population of people with lesser intellects than those with greater intellects than in previous years. What's ironic is that those of greater intellects actually make it easier for those with lesser intellects to remain at their current level or even decline from their current level through "text-speak," T-9 editing, etc.

TL;DR: I'm very much frightful for how future generations are going to speak both at a social level and at a professional level, be it upward, downward or even horizontal communication.

[Patashu]

Re: Decline of Language

Surely we've all noticed the recent decline in the ability of the general public to discern between "your" and "you're."

who cares
there's never a point where using one instead of the other changes what you mean, so just mentally substitute the correct one

stopped reading there

[~kitty~]

Re: Decline of Language

EDIT: I also cannot believe how stupid some advertisements are. FFS, I saw an ad that said "Want to Learn English?" I did NOT know you were supposed to capitalize Verbs. I thought it was only nouns. /sarcasm.

Maybe "Learn English" is the name of a dance.

[DossarLX ODI]

Re: Decline of Language

who cares
there's never a point where using one instead of the other changes what you mean, so just mentally substitute the correct one

stopped reading there

This brings up a valid point. Many colloquialisms are "technically incorrect" but are still understood to have the same meaning.

For example, "I don't know nothin'". In the literal interpretation, it's a double negative, which means the person saying it actually does know something, but is understood as "I know nothing" because of talking styles.

[ScylaX]

Re: Decline of Language

there's never a point where using one instead of the other changes what you mean, so just mentally substitute the correct one

Are you trying to say that it would be absurd to be annoyed by the linguistic mistakes of our peers because it doesn't change the fact you understand what they meant ?

Actually, it makes the understanding harder than if they talked correctly. We need a rich language to correctly express things in the most accurate way possible, the deterioration of that abundance lead to difficulties to correctly put into words anything that has a little depth.

[aperson]

Re: Decline of Language

Are you trying to say that it would be absurd to be annoyed by the linguistic mistakes of our peers because it doesn't change the fact you understand what they meant ?

Actually, it makes the understanding harder than if they talked correctly. We need a rich language to correctly express things in the most accurate way possible, the deterioration of that abundance lead to difficulties to correctly put into words anything that has a little depth.

Ya its you're problem not mine if you get annoyed. Try reprogramming yourself to not be so... annoyable. It doesn't make understanding harder, there is no crosstalk between "your" and "you're" because they have totally different functions in our grammar.

Also for the record, "the deterioration of that abundance lead to difficulties to correctly put into words anything that has a little depth" is ridiculously hard to read mostly because you screwed up lead(s) and you used "abundance" as the subject of a sentence which turned it into an abstract mess. So it turns out that things like verb conjugation actually are important; on the other hand, getting mad about homophony isn't.

For example, "I don't know nothin'". In the literal interpretation, it's a double negative, which means the person saying it actually does know something, but is understood as "I know nothing" because of talking styles.

There is no "literal interpretation" of a double negative because double negatives aren't valid in our grammar. You could argue by saying "Negation in language is like multiplying by -1" or something like that, but then you are still invoking something outside of our grammar. In Spanish if you want to make a negation, you have to negate the relevant noun phrase and then every other quantifier, which proves that there is no "literal interpretation" of double negatives because it is completely valid in Spanish to use them to mean the same thing as English's single negation. To Spanish speakers, negation isn't like multiplying by -1, it's a different concept.

[Emithith]

Re: Decline of Language

Ya its you're problem not mine if you get annoyed.

you're

Troll.

Maybe "Learn English" is the name of a dance.

It wasn't the name of a dance. It was ESL, I seriously wonder how many mistakes the foreigners will learn in that course because of them. :rage:

[ScylaX]

Re: Decline of Language

Ya its you're problem not mine if you get annoyed. Try reprogramming yourself to not be so... annoyable. It doesn't make understanding harder, there is no crosstalk between "your" and "you're" because they have totally different functions in our grammar

I hardly understand where is the counter-argument in this post, it looks like you thought I was talking about the oral understanding when I was in fact speaking about written mistakes. Anyway, please, explain.

"the deterioration of that abundance lead to difficulties to correctly put into words anything that has a little depth" is ridiculously hard to read mostly because you screwed up lead(s) and you used "abundance" as the subject of a sentence which turned it into an abstract mess. So it turns out that things like verb conjugation actually are important; on the other hand, getting mad about homophony isn't.

Yes. My bad, I was writing too fast, but wasn't "deterioration" the subject instead of "abundance" ? I try to correct every errors I commit because I'm still far from being bilingual.

[kommisar]

Re: Decline of Language

I Like How Everyone's Trying Really Hard To Type Properly In This Thread.

[ScylaX]

Re: Decline of Language

I Like How Everyone's Trying Really Hard To Type Properly In This Thread.

evry1 triez it's best to avoids ad hominem attax lol

[smartdude1212]

Re: Decline of Language

The usage of "there is" over "there are" in everyday conversation is more irritating, I'd say. It's a more common violation in spoken language because people tend to have less time to think about what they're saying, but it's as if they're hardly thinking. The same goes for "there was" and "there were," "there has been" and "there have been," et cetera.

Another irritating mistake is "definately" versus "definitely," which makes little sense because when I say "definitely" I don't hear anything close to an "a" in there.

Unfortunately English is so common that we shan't (sha'n't if you're hardcore) have to worry about preserving our language anytime soon.