MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Interesting read on "signature words" and how they spread.
I've noticed that it's contagious even if you don't want it to be. I've heard it so often at work that I've actually started saying "going forward" rather than the perfectly cromulent "in the future" or "from now on." (Then I cringe and correct myself.)
Kinda hard to be introspective about it though. I guess I have phrases I overuse ("what could possibly go wrong?" in the face of impending disaster, for instance). And as evidenced in this very post I have written linguistic tics such dropping leading words ("It's" should be at the start of this post - probably a side-effect of my spoken dialect) and using weasel words ("I guess" - I got into the habit of doing this in case I'm subsequently proved wrong).
There's some folk on here though who definitely have signatures, I can sometimes recognise a poster from their writing without looking at the name above it. (Comes in handy as a Moderator when looking for second accounts...)
There's some folk on here though who definitely have signatures, I can sometimes recognise a poster from their writing without looking at the name above it.
Like a shibboleth kinda thing, you mean? 😉
Like a shibboleth kinda thing, you mean?
Oddly enough, I nearly added [i]"it amuses me greatly that Shibboleth has a shibboleth"[/i] and then decided against it.
I'll read article later....
"Like" Many people (Especially Americans) suffer from.
Years ago I managed I chap whos every other word (genuinely!) was "innit"
I also once worked with a chap called Lee, if there was any English word that ended in "ly" or any other letters to make a "Lee" then he would absolutely, definitely, sadly and irritatingly use it
Mine has to be "erm"
I use but a lot more than I probably should. I used to say innit to take the piss and then started saying it as part of my normal vocabulary. It actual took quite a bit of effort to stop using it
I found myself saying "my bad" recently.
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'Spot on' apparantly.
No idea until someone mentioned it recently.
I sometimes find myself saying "mate" or "no problem". Luckily I then remember my age and snap out of it.
So, I find myself saying So, all the time. I say it, write it, think it. There are various forums I have been members of (especially in the programming and database world) where you get banned for starting sentences with so. I blame irish grandparents.
"Ah look"...as in the Australian version.
And "For sure..."
I say "bonkers" a lot, and "crackers-bonkers" if it's warranted.
That's an Irish thing too. My uncles say it in gentle discussion."Ah look"...as in the Australian version.
Recently I have found myself calling patients "dude" a lot. More than a little ridiculous given my age and the age of the folk I address like that
That's an Irish thing too.
Indeed...which is why I think I've settled back into using it. I'd also say the Irish version is not so gentle...or at least, it can be both gentle ("ah now, look it...") or aggressive ("LOOK!...") if you know what I mean.