Is anyone else completely bound to prescriptive grammar?

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Khalaris
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10 Dec 2007, 9:44 am

For me, the worst thing of all is apostrophe abuse. I might not always use the right grammar or word order and I'm generally quite tolerant of "alternative orthography", but an apostrophe in the wrong place makes me want to scream. Apostrophe abuse is very popular in Germany and many people think it's "cool" to randomly stick them to words. A plural with -'s, honestly! That's just wrong! And not just plurals... you use it like "Mike's bike", but here "Mikes Fahrrad" would be right, but no... if it ends on -s, why not use an apostrophe?! ARGH.

I'm annoyed now. Maybe you can tell. :wink:



KRIZDA88
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10 Dec 2007, 9:50 am

bad grammar irritates me, yes. However, I'm am prone to it at times, only the things that still sound right even when it's wrong. But was and were and neither nor and stuff like that, I can hardly stop my self from correcting people. Example in the bathroom stall decorating contest some had a stall called "In a perfect World" then someone went and made it "In an unperfect world" Unperfect? since when is that a word?! Imperfect people IM!


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PLA
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15 Dec 2007, 8:08 am

dongiovanni wrote:
PLA wrote:
Ah, yes, the old "choice of word"-issue. I have that.
I normally throw a tantrum if someone, even on tv, says the word "amoral".
I hate that word. I hate it a great deal.
It's supposed to be "immoral".
"Amoral" is utter nonsense. Nonsense that I find strongly offensive.


Actually, amoral does have a meaning separate from immoral. A person is amoral if they are not psychologically bound to the idea of morals, whereas an immoral person is bound to said ideals, but chooses to rashly defy them. An action is amoral if it is not addressed by a certain moral code (the wearing of pink is considered amoral), whereas an immoral action defies this moral code (murder is immoral). [...]


I did not consider this.
But I would still prefer "unmoral" to "amoral". I can not reason my way to that preference.

@ Khalaris: It's not very common in Sweden, but it happens, and I sympathize with your reaction.
Btw, would anyone please explain why genitive is expressed with apostophe in english? Most languages use "-s" rather than "-'s".

On a side-note: In swedish it is enough if there is a slightly s-like sound at the end of the word/name. For example "Schweiz" has no need for a genitive-expressing suffix at all.


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