Grametcally incurrect

[BAJR Host]

New Britarch thread

Have to confess I am baffled at the recent thread on britarch .. I got told about it... and popped over here to look

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadm...L=britarch

the Charles Meade Thread

I do like Johns comment

quote:I watched 'The One Show' last night with Neil Oliver's bit on Maiden Castle.

Nice aerial filming though my only criticism is that Neil seems to have gone to the same school of English as Badger Colony, however fortunately I was able to make use of the BBC's useful subtitles feature to understand what was being said.

Cut to the quick I am... och aye!

More worring was a) the pop at the French... !

and I do believe we come in for critisism... here

quote:I too thought that Keith's was an enormously unfriendly, uncalled-for and chauvinist generalisation. Especially as what one sees on a number of British archaeology and metal detecting forums and PAS publications indicates that the number of native speakers of the language no longer able to apply themselves to either the spelling or grammar of their written English is proliferating at an saddening pace.

would that be BAJR Forum??

Do please try and be grammatical chaps and chappettes!

}

"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu

[m300572]

The comment however does rather lose sight of the fact that English (along with probably every other language ever spoken/written/typed/drawn on cave walls/impressed into clay tablets is not an unchangeable entity and the rules of grammar and spelling change over time and usage - look at many early 20th C dictionaries and there are lists of "new" words like "airport" and "telephone". Many of the people who type "chatty" lines on e-mail would be a little more precise if they were writing an business report. The poster is also teaching English as a foreigh language so I suspect is a lot more pedantic about usage than most, becasue he has to be professionally (I know a few translators who can be similarly precises). My other half once aske a group of German friends about some of the more obscure case endings (or something similar) as she was strugglng with them while learning the language - they looked at her as though she was daft as they didn't bother particularly in colloquial usage.

Onywys, yon chiel likley cannae speak proper Inglish like whit som o us can.

[1man1desk]

Posted by M300572:

quote:The comment however does rather lose sight of the fact that English (along with probably every other language ever spoken/written/typed/drawn on cave walls/impressed into clay tablets is not an unchangeable entity and the rules of grammar and spelling change over time and usage

That is very true and valid. However, there is a big difference between adopting (or even inventing) new usages, spellings and grammar where they aid clear expression, and 'bad grammar' or wrong spelling as such, which obscures meaning and makes life difficult for the reader.

I don't care two hoots about formal rules of grammar as such, but I do believe that it is simply good manners to make an effort to ensure that whatever you write is clear and easy to read. That means that, whether your writing is formally correct or not, you do have to actually think about the grammar.

It might be applied differently, but this principle of good manners applies just as much in formal and informal writing, so I use it whether I am texting, writing an e-mail or writing a client report.

I will now get off my high horse, which is insufficiently pedantic for me, in order to froth at the mouth and fall over backwards.

Colonel 1man1desk (Mrs), aka Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells.

[BAJR Host]

I'm sure there should have been a semicolon there somewhere



"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu

[m300572]

"Colonel 1man1desk (Mrs), "

My apologies sir or madam.

I remain your humble and obedient servant

etc etc.

[Dirty Dave Lincoln]

When writing i try to use proper English grammar,but when talking i speak phonetically-in which case so long as folkies can understand the context (gist) of what i mean then who cares if words are slightly made up and aintant in OED.
"Oo eck its bloody siling again"

[achingknees]

Oh Dave from Lincoln (the dirty one)
Your recent post brings out the pedant in one who is wont to spot grammatical errors...I will resist (I am now on leave and not copy editing for some few days).

Could some clever b'std tell me if he also committed a deadly sin of tautology with speaking phonetically. (did I spell that reet?)


Best get sum food down neck b4 beer teks old

[BAJR Host]

wha'dideesay?

"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu

[gumbo]

Britarch = zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[BAJR Host]

It does help to make BAJR look dynamic

"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu