Tendency to use formal diction, grammar, spelling etc.

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I have Asperger's Syndrome, and I'm not exactly what one would call "intelligent" (In fact I'm sure I may be borderline ret*d :S ) but I have a tendency to use larger and more academic/formal sounding words when the situation does not necessitate doing so. (Holy s**t I just did it! :O ) I also have a tendency to act almost as a human spell check; I am usually 95-100% reliable when it comes to spelling, grammar and the like. However, I've searched both this forum and Google, and all I could find were people in almost the opposite scenario. I read about people who were claiming to have trouble with the above things.

So, fellow inhabitants of Wrong Planet, what do you make of this scenario?

I can't say I do that to your extent (Which I think is awesome, by the way!) However, I do get annoyed with people when they use the wrong spelling, grammar, etc. I also try my hardest to adhere to the rules myself. I can't say with 100% certainty that it's the AS, it could just be because of my Grandparents, or maybe a mix of both.

I'm sure I've read about formalised language being typical e.g. someone says something the same way they would write it. When I was little my friend actually set me aside as I wasn't really talking in a cool way. A teacher once laughed at me at parents evening because of the way I said something and I think I said something formal, out of the ordinary for a teenager.

You're not alone. I, too, have many hang-ups on spelling and grammar, but I often try to bottle up any grievances I may have with a person's misapplication of grammar or the presence of any misspelt words, mostly because I don't wish to tread on toes.

I'm more like the OP than not. I don't correct other people (although I used to*), but I tend toward formal speech and try to get as close to grammatically accurate as possible.

I have over the past several years incorporated more of the vernacular into my speech and writing, but I still have a tendency for, well, this. I fondly remember the usenet days when people would accuse me of trying to be snobbish or elitist because of how I wrote. Made no sense to me at the time. One person told me that he found my writing intimidating because he didn't feel his spelling or grammar could measure up.

* the last time I seriously did this, it caused a lot of drama and took me weeks to figure out what had happened and apologize, as everyone else involved acted like I should already know and wouldn't talk about it.

Yeah, I think that's part of the "little professor" thing (impression).

In my teens I started getting crap from people about my "textbook" speech, in the form of statements like, "so, you think you're smarter than everyone else, huh?" (I later figured out they interpreted it as "showing off." (People can be such dumbasses.)) So, I started deliberately mangling my speech until the comments stopped.

On the upside, it made me pretty good at writing essays, and I got an insanely high score on the verbal part of the SAT. So, those natural grammar skills did become very useful, eventually.

I have a tendency to speak/write in complete sentences. Um, I say "cannot" and "do not" whereas everyone else says "can't" and "don't". I overuse words such as "therefore" and "thus". But... I often make typos online.

You need to use more paragraphs.
Also I dont like the way you use 'however' or 'academic/formal'

those are my words and mannerisms

Do you know the worst part of that? If you were an NT, I bet they'd tell you what upset them. Apparently we're mind readers.

Oh, everywhere I've lived, everyone I've lived with, every school I've gone to and every job I've had, there has always been one rule for me and different rules for everyone else. It may be that I am missing nuances that would be apparent to others, but say when you're living in a household and the owner says "no pets" but then allows two people to own dogs, and when you say, "I'd like to get a kitten" and they say "But NO PETS" and then come up with nonsense about how dogs don't cause as much damage as cats.

Or with roommates and housemates when I've tried to live on my own, they'd get angry at me for something but never tell me that they were angry until it became so unbearable for them that they'd explode and blame me for not knowing they were angry and fixing the situation.

Oh can I relate!!

People would tell me I use big words and formal speech, like I was better than them. Fortunately, having been a waitress for as long time, one finds reply's that fit all the customer's common statements. So now, when anyone comments on my speech the pat response is, "Oh, I am sorry, my Mother was an English teacher and in our house the use of the word "ain't" was a major sin."

My daughter was cut from another cloth and would say, "Bob and me went to the movie." I would cringe and say, "no honey, Bob and I went to the movie." Her reply -- 'you weren't there Mom.' I gave up.

I'm one of those people on here who have bad spelling and grammar because I have a learning disorder so I'm extremely reliant on spell check. If spell check wasn't invented, I don't know what I would do? In informal writing, Im a lot more lax about using spell check.

While I did not have a language delay, I'm slow when it comes to memorizing tons of words and the fluency of my verbal communication can breakdown more easily when Im nervous or tired. Not that I cant talk, more like my sentences are not well formed grammar wise. I cant describe things very well, I use my hands to emulate the motions because I cant always pick out the right word in my head on cue. Unfortunetly for school, I've been forced to memorize tons and tons of words.

In social situations, my speech is pretty normal depending on the demographic your comparing it against. When I was in college in CA, the way I spoke was pretty normal. But when I came home to HI, due to the local culture, and the common use of informal pidgin, my language is on the formal side because I speak with proper English. I think formalities vary, in certain regions of the US, slang is used more readily. In other regions, proper English is used more. I do have some slang words up my sleeve but its more CA slang. On top of that I use umm and like to frequently and I put -ish and -y on my words here and there.

I try to be pretty exact with my grammar, etc. The last thing I want is to create confusion, when it could have been easily avoided, especially as it has a tendency to happen with spoken language. At least with written language, I have a bit more control and time to make alterations, so it's just as I want it. I remember placing apostrophes in a document I'd been given to type, only to have them srcubbed out and the document given back to be amended - I was pretty furious at that. The book 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' comes to mind again. This is supposedly the definition of a panda, but the rogue comma gives a totally different image.

That happens to me sometimes and sometimes not, more not though.

I'm always having to explain myself to people. I don't know if I have a huge vocabulary (probley) or if everyone else has a small one (fairly likely).
I can also usually look at a word and tell if it's spelled wrong, but I may not know how to spell it correctly.

I speak in a very formal way most of the time, so I can relate. I think it started when I began to write in a more academic manner such as for class. I type out full sentences online most of the time and do my best to use proper spelling and grammar. Obviously, I am human and make typos. When that happens, I correct them.