And now, to further devalue the thread....



frankiej:

Without inclusion of a conjunction, separation of two independent clauses with a comma constitutes a sentence fragment, which I recall from my school days as resulting in a more significant grade point reduction than the spelling error over which you roasted browndog. (Somebody needs to create an icon representative of somebody placing a foot in his mouth so I can insert it here).

All kidding aside, you appear to be a generally solid user of the English language, which is something I personally appreciate. I would be lying if I said I don't allow myself to be bothered by spelling and grammar errors (particularly those that bring into question the writer's intent, to Salmo's point), but you just demonstrated the main reason why I choose not to make light of them. Although I take pride in my writing and speaking abilities, I realize that I have made and will continue to make numerous errors in those disciplines. Language is a complicated, constantly evolving entity, and as such, there will always be pitfalls inherent in claiming to have mastered it. Heck, for all I know, somebody will reply to this post and point out errors I have made, despite my constant efforts to avoid them.

**NOTE TO ALL: My point (for whatever it's worth) has been made. If you aren't interested in my thoughts on the challenges associated with calling oneself a linguist in today's society, continue reading at your own risk.**

I think a big part of why even those of us who strive for perfect usage of our language sometimes come up short is the fact that standards for writing (as defined by the recognized "authorities") change frequently. Often, they come full circle over time. Examples that come to mind immediately include the standards for usage of serial commas, apostrophes, and passive vs. active voice. Besides inconsistent standards, we are also beset by cultural trends such as political correctness, which has led to a social standard for which I have particular disdain: the notion that third person pronouns should be all gender-inclusive (you know... the his and her thing). In every other language I have studied (the list isn't very long), the default in situations where an object's gender is not implied is to use the masculine form, which is the way it used to be in English. When my audience is not one that will be sensitive to such things, I still opt for the masculine (see example in first paragraph). When writing or speaking in a professional setting, I force myself to use variations of "his or her," though it nauseates me to do so.

As regards spelling, the only real danger I see in minor spelling errors (those that do not compromise clarity of intent) is that I have observed a personal tendency to get confused after seeing a common misspelling of a particular word on numerous occasions. I have been called out for repeating those misspellings in my writing on several occasions, and it annoys me to no end to think that I have allowed myself to be corrupted more than once by the misspellings of others. If I can be confused, what's to stop general society from adopting an improper spelling?

Ultimately, I believe that grammar and spelling criticism has a place, but I don't think an Internet chat board is that place. As long as a person's intent can be clearly understood, I think it is petty (and suggestive of a probability that you don't have anything of value to add to the conversation) to seek to invalidate his opinion based on his spelling and grammar prowess, and that's one reason why I don't do it. The other reason I don't harp on grammar and spelling is that I know somebody here will be quick to return the favor when I make a mistake down the road. I've had to put my foot in my mouth on many occasions, and I hate the taste, so why put myself in that position over something as trivial as an Internet thread that began as a political commentary and evolved into an MLA board meeting?

In case anyone's wondering, I do realize that I just committed the very crime against which I was speaking. I promise not to do it again, unless, of course, as was the case here (in my opinion), a smackdown is in order.

By the way, I think DriftfishNW's last post was the best of the thread. I have confessed before to being something of an Obama fan (his grammar is generally excellent), so I don't necessarily agree with the message, but I must admit that those images hold significant comedic value.