Unlucky Grammar Nazi cru

“Whether it is by random chance or selection, one of the things that is true about English – and indeed other languages – is that the language changes,” said Joshua Plotkin, co-author of the research from the University of Pennsylvania. “The grammarians might [win the battle] for a decade, but certainly over a century they are going to be on the losing side.”

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/nov/01/resistance-to-changes-in-grammar-is-futile-say-researchers

Yup language and grammar change’s all the time.

So we’re stuck with people saying bring when they mean take? Grrrr! 😥

“Get”
“I would like”

I wouldn’t want to be on the loosing side.

Some people get a real problem with that.

There or all ways loosers.

I’ve had to stop being annoyed about “Can I get…” It is more commonly used than “can I have” now 😥 Still makes me cringe.

Defiantly

That’s not lack of grandma though. That’s lack of basic politeness.

“May I have” is better.

Discrace.

can you be more pacific?

Not a problem where there’s no ambiguity but misusing words to create ambiguity is. Things like using “your” instead of “you’re” or using the apostrophe to create a plural – I saw “Free nibble’s” this morning – are simply wrong.

The OP should of thought this through before posting.

However much it changes, I will still be failing.

This is effecting me that badly, I’m loosing my mind

I don’t mind evolving grammar, as long as people remember prepositions are words you should never end a sentence with.

And on a note more pertinent to my day to day life, don’t try to correct me when I say “The data are…”.

Not a problem where there’s no ambiguity but misusing words to create ambiguity is. Things like using “your” instead of “you’re” or using the apostrophe to create a plural – I saw “Free nibble’s” this morning – are simply wrong.

Ye opinion.

‘Brought’ for ‘bought’ is one my triggers.

edit- I was going to put an amusing Grocer’s Apostrophe in ‘triggers’ but couldn’t bring myself to do it.

That’s not lack of grandma though. That’s lack of basic politeness.

“Can I get” is most defiantly grammaticly incorrect.

Customer: Can I get…
Cafe staff: No sir, that’s my job.

Uninterested and disinterested, even journalists in national newspapers get that wrong.

“Can I get?”

You are one.

Language is definitely in flux. It shan’t be long before it changes to ‘chest of draws’ permanently. Then I will loose my mind.

jimdubleyou – Member
Customer: Can I get…
Cafe staff: No sir, that’s my job.

Customer still needs to get it from you.

get
??t/Submit
verb
1.
come to have (something); receive.
“I got a letter from him the other day”
synonyms: acquire, obtain, come by, come to have, come into possession of, receive, gain, earn, win, come into, come in for, take possession of, take receipt of, be given; More
2.
succeed in attaining, achieving, or experiencing; obtain.
“I need all the sleep I can get”

Yeah but, no but … in these arguments everybody cites Shakespeare or some such dude from like, light years ago, but saying “can I get a skinny flat to go” isn’t an example of the grand inexorable evolution of language, it’s just a temporary fad with about as much staying power as “nice one Cyril”, aka none. Innit.

Language is definitely in flux. It shan’t be long before it changes to ‘chest of draws’ permanently. Then I will loose my mind.

That’s like getting upset over the shortening of withdrawing room to drawing room. Chests of drawers will be consigned to the dustbin wheelie bin of history long before the language changes.

I keep my grandma in the kitchen draws, along with any old inner tubes that have got punchers 👿

Uninterested and disinterested, even journalists in national newspapers get that wrong.

What about Unconscious and subconscious? Is it just me who thinks unconscious means knocked out and not thoughts you’re not aware of?!

Its always struck me, as weird, just how little English changes in this connected age.

The Elizabethans though it was important to create a specific word for a pubic wig.

Yet so many new words are just a descriptions… Mobile Phone, Laptop Computer, windscreen etc. etc. etc.

Think we should put Stephen Fry in charge of naming new things

whats exciting is that they see neutral drift in language as well

something our lab (and others) has observed in some cancers mutations but many scientists dont like

The Elizabethans though it was important to create a specific word for a pubic wig.

…and you’re* suggesting we adopt more ‘merkinisms into the language?

(Sorry, couldn’t quite say ‘your’.)

something our lab (and others) has observed in some cancers mutations but many scientists dont like

Do wot mate?

When I was studying in the US I had to take an English elective, the very Anglophile Professor made an interesting point that a language changes fastest the closer it is to its originating point. So American English on the whole still contains words and phrases that we in the UK stopped using many years ago.
As an aside on a dry University campus he had a great collection of gin which was most welcome at faculty parties. I used to cycle to them with a bottle of bourbon in the bottle cage 😉

Mentioned above but of for have is becoming more frequent ..

In the linguistics study they found that words change by selection, based on constraints off grammar and rhyming
ie if its easier to say or the sentence rhymes

but rare words change by accident as people simply misspronounce/misspell them and it catches on (neutral evolution)

we see the same thing in some tumours,
its assumed that tumours are a population of cells under big selective pressure, but when you look closely enough (in ~ a third of tumours- possibly more) many of the mutations accumulated randomly and are swept up with clonal expansions of cells and can come to dominate the tumour because they were established early and newer mutations that might have a selective advantage cant compete.

Its actually bad news for therapy because it makes it harder to predict how resistnce to drugs (& our own immune systems) might arise
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26780609

(sorry for the tangetnt)

Languages, all languages evolve. I’m Welsh but have lived in Hong Kong for donkeys (y)ears.
Cantonese adoption of new terms can be hilarious. Basic errors, however, occasionally boil my surplus bodily fluids.

I was in the Chippy t’other evening awaiting my Cod and chips, when some halfwit walked it and said…. ‘Can I get’

I was tempted to give him a slap around his head and shout ‘NO’ at him. Wonder how he’d have taken it! 🙂

Its always struck me, as weird, just how little English changes in this connected age.

Yet so many new words are just a descriptions… Mobile Phone, Laptop Computer, windscreen etc. etc. etc.

Think we should put Stephen Fry in charge of naming new things

He did a great series on the English language on radio. The episode about how McDonalds, basically the biggest company in the world (ish) went with the grammatically unusual “I’m loving it” form. fascinating stuff.

Anyhooos, you should try Swedish for descriptive words

a straw is a ‘suck pipe’, vegetables are ‘green things’ it is fantastic!

I could care less about that news story

*shudders* I feel dirty now 😳