"Grammar" and "Punctuation" nit's unite! You're "head" will literally explode! - Page 145 - Other Topics Forum - Discuss Pop Culture, Arts and Entertainment

atakdog · 07-14-2011, 09:44 AM

American black English is either a legitimate dialect, several dialects, or none at all, depending on what scholar you ask, but it's undeniable that urban US blacks tend to use dramatically different constructions from those that are generally considered normal in formal English. My experience with it is that the syntax is much more fluid and flexible (or, viewed less charitably, sloppy), which is a SERIOUS problem in technical or legal communication wherein precision of expression and interpretation is critical.

nuisance · 07-14-2011, 11:07 AM

Pretty much every area in the US has their own slang/dialect. But when it boils down to it "most" people can turn it off when need be especially if they have lived outside of their said area for a decent ammt' of time.

Black English=Ebonics.

atakdog · 07-14-2011, 05:03 PM

I guess I'm not sure what your point is. I wasn't citing black English as something that should be taught or even condoned, but failure to recognize that millions of Americans are actually learning (informally, from their peers) a form of the language whose structures are different from what whitebread Americans consider normal is pretty shortsighted. What part of that are you taking issue with?

styx2000 · 07-15-2011, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by =_=

History of a typical Johnny Hughes thread -

1 - long rambling nonsensical OP

2 - handful of responses consisting of 95% people making fun and 5% fellow inbread hicks saying "goshdarnit ah love yer threads jawnny!"

3 - thread sails quickly into page 2 of NVG, inevitably destined for digital bolivian

4 - johnny makes random unnecessary post whose sole purpose is to bump the thread

5 - steps 2 thru 4 repeat a couple of times

6 - eventually some overzealous youngster gets so disrespectful that the thread turns into a volley of nasty personal insults in which johnny somehow manages to come off even worse than most people already picture him

7 - mod (mercifully) locks thread

fin

ToTheInternet · 07-15-2011, 02:54 PM

Lyttle Lytton Awards (terrible short opening sentences). I haven't stopped lol'ing.

prohornblower · 07-15-2011, 03:29 PM

The "other" day I saw a sign 'that' said "polo's 30% off"

W0X0F · 07-15-2011, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ToTheInternet

Lyttle Lytton Awards (terrible short opening sentences). I haven't stopped lol'ing.

Gold! Thanks for posting this link.

DDNK · 07-15-2011, 10:37 PM

hehe, if I posted every horribly wrong sign or shirt in English that I saw, this thread would be 150 pages long... I don't know how much it costs to have a native spearker do a quick, 1 minute check of a sentence before you blow it up to size 10000 font and plaster it on your business, but apparently it's really expensive or something... I'd do it for a buck, though.

ToTheInternet · 07-15-2011, 11:20 PM

Quote:

Faces at lunch, oh, yes, smirking, lordly, bored or weary – here and there a flash of passion, of dreams or loving seriousness; these signs I saw, notwithstanding the sweep of a fork like a Stuka dive-bomber, stabbing down into the cringing salads, carrying them up to the death of unseen teeth between dancing wrinkled cheeks; a breadstick rose in hand, approached the purple lips in a man’s dull gray face; an oval darkness opened and shut and the breadstick was half gone! A lady in a red blazer, her face alert, patient and professionally kind like a psychoanalyst’s, stuck her fork lovingly into a tomato, smiling across the table at another woman’s face; everything she did was gentle, and it was but habit for her to hurt the tomato as little as possible; nonetheless she did not see it. Nodding and shaking her head, she ate and ate, gazing sweetly into the other woman’s face. Finally, I saw one woman in sunglasses who studied her arugula as she bit it. It disappeared by jagged inches, while across the table, in her husband’s lap, the baby watched in dark-eyed astonishment. Her husband crammed an immense collage of sandwich components into his hairy cheeks. He snatched up pommes-frites and they vanished in toto. When the dessert cart came, the starched white shoulders of businessmen continued to flex and shine; their faces glazed at one another over emptiness, much happier now that they had eaten, unthinking of what they had wrought.

(WT Vollmann)

Thoughts? (On aesthetics/diction/etc., not cold, hard grammar.)

TorMachine · 07-16-2011, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DDNK

hehe, if I posted every horribly wrong sign or shirt in English that I saw, this thread would be 150 pages long... I don't know how much it costs to have a native spearker do a quick, 1 minute check of a sentence before you blow it up to size 10000 font and plaster it on your business, but apparently it's really expensive or something... I'd do it for a buck, though.

What is a native spearker?

DDNK · 07-16-2011, 09:29 PM

A person for whom the language is their first, who comes from a community of people who also have the language as their first, and who has a solid grasp on the standard usage, grammar, and vocabulary of the language that are commonly accepted in one of the main dialects of the language, if not shared among all dialects.

For instance, someone who doesn't say, "the chief at my placejob mean man." or who wouldn't write on the wall of their business "injoy the great food. it is deicious," although I do get a kick out of "deicious food." Eucharist crackers come to mind.

coffee_monster · 07-16-2011, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DDNK

A person for whom the language is their first, who comes from a community of people who also have the language as their first, and who has a solid grasp on the standard usage, grammar, and vocabulary of the language that are commonly accepted in one of the main dialects of the language, if not shared among all dialects.

For instance, someone who doesn't say, "the chief at my placejob mean man." or who wouldn't write on the wall of their business "injoy the great food. it is deicious," although I do get a kick out of "deicious food." Eucharist crackers come to mind.

I think you defined "native speaker". That wasn't the question

GMan42 · 07-16-2011, 10:32 PM

Yeah, I think TorMachine was just nitting up this thread by jumping on a typo...a slippery slope down which we'd best not go. There are so many better things to pick on.

coffee_monster · 07-16-2011, 11:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GMan42

Yeah, I think TorMachine was just nitting up this thread by jumping on a typo...a slippery slope down which we'd best not go. There are so many better things to pick on.

True, but it was ironic given the post in which the typo appeared.

In before someone makes fun of my use of the word "ironic".

Or the quotes, or the period outside the quotes.

atakdog · 07-16-2011, 11:29 PM

Period outside the quotation marks is the preferred method according to many, probably including a majority of the regulars in this thread.

I thought post 2170 was slightly over the line, and I think things would be better if we all dropped the subject.