Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you

[Vinyadan]

Awesome. So what you're saying is from now on we should bark one word answers.

[Aedilred]

A professor would say something like X number of pages. I was often under X, and was never penalized for it. I always got my A. I just seem to communicate in a lower word count. On the reverse side of the coin I can sometimes go off and write an extremely longer-than-needed paper, if it is an interesting topic.

It always amazes me on how much people can talk or write without saying anything. Sometimes I time a Youtuber on how long it takes them to get the point of the video . . . try it and be amazed!

Oh yeah, people do waffle a lot, especially on YouTube. One of my frustrations with the video-blog's becoming increasingly common is that it seems to have led to an increase in waffle, since a lot of vloggers appear to ad lib rather than drafting a script. And concision is often to be praised. But that doesn't mean that redundant words always need to be eliminated. There is a difference between waffling and answering in complete sentences, for instance.

Besides and despite the descriptivist bent of many of this thread (you're all wrong), I would argue that it is a valid use of language, just a style you dislike, rather than a misuse per se.

Awesome. So what you're saying is from now on we should bark one word answers.

That would be an ecumenical matter.

[Rynjin]

Oh yeah, people do waffle a lot, especially on YouTube. One of my frustrations with the video-blog's becoming increasingly common is that it seems to have led to an increase in waffle, since a lot of vloggers appear to ad lib rather than drafting a script. And concision is often to be praised. But that doesn't mean that redundant words always need to be eliminated. There is a difference between waffling and answering in complete sentences, for instance.

Unfortunately, they don't have much of a choice in some cases. Due to Youtube's change to how revenue works a few years back, you have to hit that 10 minute mark AT LEAST for any video to be worth your time (in a literal sense). The longer the better.

It's part of the reason animation on Youtube is pretty much dead now; a 10 minute animation is a tall order, and anything shorter makes no money, especially since animators don't post daily content (which is its own set of issues when it comes to exposure and revenue).

[veti]

Yes, I 100% agree. Without audio issues, it is an annoying procedure. With audio issues it is understandable.

Like it or not, there are reasons for that annoying procedure. The people who are answering those phones - are descended, via training, from a long line of people who have answered, collectively, billions of calls, in the process of which they have experienced every kind of mistake and misunderstanding you can imagine, and a great many more besides.

And their experience has taught them that this procedure eliminates a large percentage of those misunderstandings, and results in measurably better service - fewer complaints, fewer repeats.

[Knaight]

Yes, I 100% agree. Without audio issues, it is an annoying procedure. With audio issues it is understandable.

There are going to be audio issues - phones cut off all signal above a certain frequency threshold (landlines use 3000 Hz, I honestly don't know for cell phones), and if you look at the waveforms of phonemes in frequency space in human hearing range there are multiple that are nigh identical from 20-3000 Hz, which then diverge significantly in the high frequency range. On a phone these just go to being nigh identical.

If only there were some way to detect some audio issues. Maybe have the employee confirm what the caller says as a quick and dirty failsafe?

Well played.

[Peelee]

Well played.

Thanks! I was pretty pleased at how fast I was able to swing it back around.

[Rockphed]

There are going to be audio issues - phones cut off all signal above a certain frequency threshold (landlines use 3000 Hz, I honestly don't know for cell phones), and if you look at the waveforms of phonemes in frequency space in human hearing range there are multiple that are nigh identical from 20-3000 Hz, which then diverge significantly in the high frequency range. On a phone these just go to being nigh identical.

Cell phones (and land lines) can improve frequency spread of speech, but the technology to do so has not been utilized to its fullest extent. They can even do this without needing more bandwidth due to the cyclic nature of speech. Essentially, every 50 - 100 ms you change the sound you are making, but between those you make the same sound the entire time. Human speech produces sounds in the 50 - 10,000 Hz range, but sending the components every 50 ms takes about as much bandwidth as continuously sending 3 kHz.

[Knaight]

Cell phones (and land lines) can improve frequency spread of speech, but the technology to do so has not been utilized to its fullest extent. They can even do this without needing more bandwidth due to the cyclic nature of speech. Essentially, every 50 - 100 ms you change the sound you are making, but between those you make the same sound the entire time. Human speech produces sounds in the 50 - 10,000 Hz range, but sending the components every 50 ms takes about as much bandwidth as continuously sending 3 kHz.

It's used pretty minimally - in practice for an actual phone call you can consistently assume that everything above 3 kHz is cut if a landline is involved, and landlines are almost certainly involved on at least one end of the phone calls being discussed here.

[Bohandas]

I think the problem is less the concept of the procedure than it is that the scripted response is worded in a stilted manner.

[Bohandas]

Unfortunately, they don't have much of a choice in some cases. Due to Youtube's change to how revenue works a few years back, you have to hit that 10 minute mark AT LEAST for any video to be worth your time (in a literal sense). The longer the better.

It's part of the reason animation on Youtube is pretty much dead now; a 10 minute animation is a tall order, and anything shorter makes no money, especially since animators don't post daily content (which is its own set of issues when it comes to exposure and revenue).

Why did they do that by the way? Does anyone know?

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Why did they do that by the way? Does anyone know?

I don’t know, but I suspect that it is a lot harder to sell ads on short videos, since people are not likely to sit through 15 seconds of ad to see a mere minute of content.

Grey Wolf

[Kyrell1978]

I don’t know, but I suspect that it is a lot harder to sell ads on short videos, since people are not likely to sit through 15 seconds of ad to see a mere minute of content.

Grey Wolf

Matt Patt did a video on that once but I don't recall exactly what the ideal time for a video was.

[Stuebi]

This might be a little bit weird, since you folks aer probably talking about mostly english misuses, but here's mine:

For quite a few years, but I've noticed it even more recently, english has snuck it's way into the common vocabulary over here in switzerland. What I mean by this, you often have random english words inserted into german speech (I dunno if it happens in french as well, which is another major language over here. It def. does not happen for retro-romanian, which is almost a good enough reason to learn it).

Now, this by itself does not bug me, at least not nearly as much as back when my generation, or the one right after me, decided it would be really cool to insert "Internetspeech" into their speech. To this day, if somebody actually SAYS "LoL", especially if neither their face nor their tone actually implies any sort of amusement going on, I want to powerbomb them into the nearest table.

But what REALLY grind my gears, if somebody that speaks german starts inserting english into what they say, but they don't even use it right. The term "lit", as far as I know, refers to something being amazing or awesome. And then you have "cool" which in english can also mean something being cold, as opposed to, you know "Being a cool guy.".

So these two brainiacs that work one floor below me, would start using the german words for "Ice" and "Fire" to supplement these two. So every morning I have the pleasure of listening to such wonderful gems as:

"Die Party war so Feuer letzte Nacht!" - "The Party was so fire last night!"
"Joe ist echt Eis." - "Joe is really ice."

That noise you are hearing is your brain, desperately trying to tunnel its way out of your poor, tormented skull.

[Rockphed]

"Die Party war so Feuer letzte Nacht!" - "The Party was so fire last night!"
"Joe ist echt Eis." - "Joe is really ice."

I could see "The party was on fire last night" or "Joe is made of ice", but yeah, ouch. Just watch, idiot english speakers will adopt those neologisms and then we will all be crying for mercy.

[veti]

I could see "The party was on fire last night" or "Joe is made of ice", but yeah, ouch. Just watch, idiot english speakers will adopt those neologisms and then we will all be crying for mercy.

Isn't that exactly how slang forms, all the time? People decide to put their own spin on an existing usage, then some fraction of those new usages get picked up and propagated beyond their home environment.

[Vinyadan]

Saying "cool" in German isn't an exclusive of Switzerland, though.

[Yuki Akuma]

Those neologisms sound pretty fire to me.

[Stuebi]

Saying "cool" in German isn't an exclusive of Switzerland, though.

No, absolutely not. But then Swiss-German is mostly just "Kawaii German" for the most part.

[Peelee]

Those neologisms sound pretty fire to me.

Really? I think they were kind of ice.

[snowblizz]

Why did they do that by the way? Does anyone know?

With 95% certainty I'll say that Youtube's (Google's) algorithms have mined the data on views, ads etc etc to determined what is the optimal length of a video to draw traffic and ad views, and hence revenue.

It probably aims for a long enough to be "worth" it and short enoguh you got time to spare sweetspot. 30minutes is a long commitment whereas 3x 10 min videos is just a short pause followed by 2 failed Will tests. Roll a double 1 and you open TVtropes homepage too.

[sktarq]

the modern use of the word "Swagger"

it has little to do with original meaning.

is used almost entirely by and about buffoons

is linked to the Rolling Stones causing them to also be brought up with little thought to the relevance of Mick, Keith, et al's musical body of work to the original conversation

and just when I thought it was dying off and the colonial police batons, cowboys, and those looking to describe the status conscious moseys of the shallowly confident would be left in peace.....
It turns out this newer use of the word has become so engrained into the culture that the US State dept has gotten in on the action

[Tankertot]

I know this is cliche but literally, and figuratively are just so annoying when misused!

[Ravens_cry]

Might already be covered, but I see lose misspelled as loose so often, that I think it will become an accepted alternate, if not primary, spelling in a generation or two. Funny that lose would gain a letter though . . ..

[Peelee]

I know this is cliche but literally, and figuratively are just so annoying when misused!

What about unnecessary commas?

[Rockphed]

What about unnecessary commas?

Frankly, I think he meant to have a parenthetical, as you do, but forgot the second comma.

[Peelee]

Frankly, I think he meant to have a parenthetical, as you do, but forgot the second comma.

Probably, but it's just so easy to snipe in this thread. Camper no camping

[Flyingbooks42]

I know this is cliche but literally, and figuratively are just so annoying when misused!

I agree, especially for literally. It's so annoying how it's used to mean figuratively or used as a filler word. The overuse of like is also really annoying. People often never even realize that they're using like several times per sentence until somebody tells them.

[Peelee]

The overuse of like is also really annoying. People often never even realize that they're using like several times per sentence until somebody tells them.

As one of the ones who does realize how often I use it...

[Bohandas]

I agree, especially for literally. It's so annoying how it's used to mean figuratively or used as a filler word. The overuse of like is also really annoying. People often never even realize that they're using like several times per sentence until somebody tells them.

To be fair it means the same as "really" (a derivation of "real"; actual) and "very" (from "verus"; true)

[halfeye]

"Make due": it should be "make do".