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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
BWR
Plus a mouse over. Plus a votey. Plus full color. Plus updates every day for something over ten years now. Plus occasional bonus comics for special occasions.
I like SMBC, is what I'm saying here.
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
Ah, now I have one!
How part of English-speaking historiography seems to call everything an Empire.
Like, British Empire? Sure, that's OK. They called it that. They actually called England that even before England had a colonial empire. Spanish Empire? Spain didn't actually have an emperor after the XIV century, but it's normal to talk about colonial empires, so why not? Not really accurate, but acceptable.
Angevin Empire? ...nope. Those were simply Angevin land holdings. No emperor anywhere, and no special relationship compared to normal Medieval standards.
There's a lot of these: Swedish Empire, Norwegian Empire, North Sea Empire: these could simply say "Kingdom(s)" or "Holds" or "Possessions". Then there are the Athenian Empires (actual name: I and II Delian Leagues).
These really are completely unimportant misuses, given that "Empire" must have between 3 and 300 different meanings, so they may not be misuses at all.
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Telonius
"More unique" or "Most unique." There are no degrees of uniqueness. Either it is, or it isn't. The word you're looking for is "rare" or "unusual." :smallfurious:
Simplified corrections also bug me. They'll often forget important exceptions. "Affect - an action, Effect = a result," is on a coffee mug. Seeing things like that will always effect a change in my affect. :smallbiggrin:
For some reason, "more unique" and "most unique" don't bother me, but "very unique" does. No idea why.
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
this may have been said already.. I haven't read the full thread:
people who say they are 1000% committed, or 120% sure..
that's not how percentages work. :smallfurious:
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Peelee
Plus a votey.
What's a votey?
GW
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Grey_Wolf_c
What's a votey?
GW
It's the little comic which appears when you press the red button (such as on the SMBC page linked). Why they're called that I don't know.
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Jormengand
It's the little comic which appears when you press the red button (such as on the SMBC page linked). Why they're called that I don't know.
There is an extra punchline joke if I press the red thing? Oh for ****s sake. *eye twitch*
GW
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Grey_Wolf_c
There is an extra punchline joke if I press the red thing? Oh for ****s sake. *eye twitch*
GW
It's purely optional. Don't like it, don't press it. Frankly, I like three jokes per comic. Wienersmith is usually on the ball.
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Peelee
It's purely optional. Don't like it, don't press it. Frankly, I like three jokes per comic. Wienersmith is usually on the ball.
Oh, I like it. The problem is that now I'm having to contemplate doing a re-read of 10 years worth of comics just to press the little button. Just like I had to do when I realised xkcd had overtext jokes.
GW
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Grey_Wolf_c
Oh, I like it. The problem is that now I'm having to contemplate doing a re-read of 10 years worth of comics just to press the little button. Just like I had to do when I realised xkcd had overtext jokes.
GW
What's overtext?
(When I "Google" it, I just get pages of "How to flirt over text")
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
2D8HP
What's overtext?
(When I "Google" it, I just get pages of "How to flirt over text")
I guess it's "mouse over text". The little text box that appears when you leave the mouse pointer resting on the picture for a short time.
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Iruka
I guess it's "mouse over text". The little text box that appears when you leave the mouse pointer resting on the picture for a short time.
Thanks!
:smile:
EDIT:
....Uh oh, doesn't work using a phone.
:frown:
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
dehro
this may have been said already.. I haven't read the full thread:
people who say they are 1000% committed, or 120% sure..
that's not how percentages work. :smallfurious:
are you sure? I got 101% in my physics class.:smalltongue:
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Grey_Wolf_c
Oh, I like it. The problem is that now I'm having to contemplate doing a re-read of 10 years worth of comics just to press the little button. Just like I had to do when I realised xkcd had overtext jokes.
GW
Oh, then this'll make you just explode with joy - he didn't do the voteys when he started the comic, so there was a good stretch of time without them. But a couple years ago or so he went back and gave a votey to every comic that didn't have one. So you have literally the entire collection to go through.
He has not, to the best of my knowledge, done any mouse-over text to the old strips, so there's that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
2D8HP
Thanks!
:smile:
EDIT:
....Uh oh, doesn't work using a phone.
:frown:
On a phone, just tap the comic itself, it'll give you the mouseover (which is a feature wish XKCD would implement as well). If it's an older comic without mouseover text, tapping the comic will just go to the next comic.
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Peelee
He has not, to the best of my knowledge, done any mouse-over text to the old strips, so there's that.
Hoo boy, do I have some bad news for you! I just checked the oldest strips and those now have mouse-over text as well. Enjoy your re-reads, everyone!
I remember when the votey actually had a purpose: SMBC (and OOTS for that matter) used to be on webcomic ranking sites, so clicking the button used to redirect you to the voting site as well as revealing the bonus comic. Hence the name. It's hilarious that Zach has not only kept making them as this bizarre little appendix to the comic, but has actually added them retroactively to the older strips as well.
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Ebon_Drake
Hoo boy, do I have some bad news for you! I just checked the oldest strips and those now have mouse-over text as well. Enjoy your re-reads, everyone!
I remember when the votey actually had a purpose: SMBC (and OOTS for that matter) used to be on webcomic ranking sites, so clicking the button used to redirect you to the voting site as well as revealing the bonus comic. Hence the name. It's hilarious that Zach has not only kept making them as this bizarre little appendix to the comic, but has actually added them retroactively to the older strips as well.
SMBC is easily my favorite webcomic, for so many reasons. Weinersmith's commitment to it is certainly no small part of that.
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
factotum
You seem to be complaining that people use the word "tsunami" when the English phrase "tidal wave" exists, but as you also point out, those are names for two different things? A tsunami is a large wave caused by a displacement of water, e.g. by a landslide or an earthquake, whereas a tidal wave is a storm surge or tidal bore. Calling an earthquake-derived wave a "tidal wave" is just plain wrong, regardless of it being commonly done.
I believe I noted in the very post that you quote that I learned they are (slightly) different things, and that therefore it was not the best possible example of the phenomenon to which I was referring, merely the one that first came to mind.
If you would prefer a better example, how about when people use the phrase "a certain je ne sais quoi" to describe a positive quality that they don't have the right words for? It literally just means "I don't know what," but in French, so why not just say that?
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Velaryon
If you would prefer a better example, how about when people use the phrase "a certain je ne sais quoi" to describe a positive quality that they don't have the right words for? It literally just means "I don't know what," but in French, so why not just say that?
Because it sounds better in French? Or are you saying that Englih should limit itself to, what, anglo-saxon words only? To take a random word you used: example is pretty much pure Latin (exempli), and I'm sure the concept can be expressed in anglo-saxon terms if you really dig into the language, but why bother? English's strength is in its plasticity and ability - nay willingness - to steal from other languages. Embrace it.
GW
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Grey_Wolf_c
Because it sounds better in French?
No it doesn't. At best it's subjective preference, at worst it sounds pretentious.
Quote:
Or are you saying that Englih should limit itself to, what, anglo-saxon words only? To take a random word you used: example is pretty much pure Latin (exempli), and I'm sure the concept can be expressed in anglo-saxon terms if you really dig into the language, but why bother? English's strength is in its plasticity and ability - nay willingness - to steal from other languages. Embrace it.
GW
I am saying that if your native language is English, you are conversing in English, and there is a word or short phrase that conveys your meaning equally or better than a word from another language, it is better to use the English word.
It's also worth pointing out that the topic is "Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you," not "Totally ironclad rules of language that everyone must live by." It bugs me, it probably doesn't bug you, that's okay.
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Velaryon
No it doesn't. At best it's subjective preference, at worst it sounds pretentious.
I am saying that if your native language is English, you are conversing in English, and there is a word or short phrase that conveys your meaning equally or better than a word from another language, it is better to use the English word.
What if the word from another language is also an English word? Like rendezvous, from the French rendezvous, meaning "rendezvous."
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Peelee
What if the word from another language is also an English word? Like rendezvous, from the French rendezvous, meaning "rendezvous."
I have no issues with anglicised foreign words like rendezvous or de ja vu. But please, please don't affect a french accent whilst you say it. I've heard this happen more times than I'd care to count... :smallfrown:
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Velaryon
If you would prefer a better example, how about when people use the phrase "a certain je ne sais quoi" to describe a positive quality that they don't have the right words for? It literally just means "I don't know what," but in French, so why not just say that?
I agree with that.
Along with excessive wordiness (verbosity, if you must) of modern languages, especially English...
History of languages is the history of borrowings, and all, but I still can't wrap my head around longer, less graceful words displacing better ones. Mostly because they sound 'new' and 'hot'.
Polish language did have quite a lot of terms to say 'offended', 'bugged' and whatever, but now everyone uses 'bulwersować' which, is long, awkward, and of course mostly mean 'turn/roll the ball' in French. XD
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Fin
I have no issues with anglicised foreign words like rendezvous or de ja vu. But please, please don't affect a french accent whilst you say it. I've heard this happen more times than I'd care to count... :smallfrown:
I'll add one for non-English speakers: do not pronounce Latin like English :biggrin:
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Peelee
....On a phone, just tap the comic itself, it'll give you the mouseover (which is a feature wish XKCD would implement as well). If it's an older comic without mouseover text, tapping the comic will just go to the next comic.
:frown:
Sadly that doesn't work on my phone, but happily I've enjoyed re-reading (and reading many I don't remember) strips.
:smile:
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Fin
I have no issues with anglicised foreign words like rendezvous or de ja vu. But please, please don't affect a french accent whilst you say it. I've heard this happen more times than I'd care to count... :smallfrown:
A) At what point is a foreign word or phrase anglicized?
2.) Better a French accent than a hick one, trust me on that.
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Peelee
A) At what point is a foreign word or phrase anglicized?
I mean words that are used in common parlance in English but are in actuality completely untranslated French, 'rendezvous' is the best one I can think of really. Also, by accent I don't mean dropping the letters that are silent, I mean literally gaining a voice like Pepe Le Pew for just that word
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Peelee
2.) Better a French accent than a hick one, trust me on that.
This may be true but due to my location being in England I am not exposed to it too much outside of American TV shows. That being said I am from Liverpool so my accent is pretty strong and not what you would describe as cultured so who am I to judge! :smallbiggrin:
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Fin
I have no issues with anglicised foreign words like rendezvous or de ja vu. But please, please don't affect a french accent whilst you say it. I've heard this happen more times than I'd care to count... :smallfrown:
Well, it's not Pepe le Pew, but I can't help but use a french r when pronouncing rendezvous. I was never able to get my French 'e's right, but years of practice means I have to actively try to NOT pronounce the 'r'.
And yes, this is the exact example of my issue with "how dare you use x when y, a 'proper' word will do" - that I strongly doubt it is in any way applied uniformly. "Je ne sais quois" may bother Velaryon, but does that extend to rendezvous, entrepreneur, veal, dossier, ambulance, bayonet, camouflage, etc.? It smacks of double standards, based more on familiarity to the words than their actual stated reasoning.
Ironically, of course, the most famous for this approach to "the purity of language" is the French Academy, who keeps trying (with no success) to get the French people to use French words for everything, and keep decrying "the young" for using English words instead.
Grey Wolf
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Grey_Wolf_c
Ironically, of course, the most famous for this approach to "the purity of language" is the French Academy, who keeps trying (with no success) to get the French people to use French words for everything, and keep decrying "the young" for using English words instead.
Fun fact: The leader of the Vichy regime was also a member of the French Academy, therefore making him a literal Grammar Nazi
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
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Originally Posted by
Fin
I mean words that are used in common parlance in English but are in actuality completely untranslated French, 'rendezvous' is the best one I can think of really. Also, by accent I don't mean dropping the letters that are silent, I mean literally gaining a voice like Pepe Le Pew for just that word
I meant that as well. At some point untranslated words or phrases become English.
Also, I'll be deep in the cold, cold gound before I stop doing the stereotypical French laugh after saying a French word like a Frenchy. The laugh always makes it better.
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Re: Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you
I for one will always pronounce French words in a French accent. Further, "Wipers" and "Ore-Leens" physically hurt me. Fortunately, we seem to have decided that pronouncing German words like German words are pronounced is okay, so I don't have to deal with the Third Rayitch and the Nazzy party.