Grammatical Misunderstanding's ;)

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Not that I'm claiming to be a paragon of spelling and grammar, but I sometimes have a difficult time reading improperly formed or punctuated sentences. Often it takes quite a while to mentally sort out the meaning. Here's something simple as an example:

I'm sure the typical mind can sort this out quickly, but I am always struck by a showstopping "What?" when it is written the wrong way. Then my extreme naivete kicks in along with the ‘over thinking’ and I have to ask myself if I should continue dealing with this person if they are thinking of me (as I am male) as an object.

It seems to me that this is NOT a trait that everyone here has, but a trait that a distinct subset of people here have. Do you have this? If so, do you feel that this trait runs hand-in-hand with any others (i.e. you have a great or perfect memory, you have a high IQ, you have a gift with languages, are you a complete and utter perfectionist, etc)?

Ironically, you put incorrect punctuation in the subject line of your own post. I tend to read those things literally, too, so I was left thinking "the grammatical misunderstanding's WHAT?"

absolutely! My biggest gripe with grammar is people thinking a apostrophe between a word and its plural making s is some how the correct way to punctuate. I see it at work in actual company documents and point it out to mostly blank uncomprehending faces around me.

ditto regarding use of apostrophes incorrectly.

Grammar is important. So is a sense of humor, and the ability to read smilies. The header was followed by the "wink" symbol.

Yes, I find it difficult to understand grammatically incorrect sentences, but I can tell I am better at it than some people on this forum.

Perhaps since we have an impaired ability to understand other people's thoughts and viewpoint, it is hard for us to grasp what a person means when it is not written in a grammatically manner. We can only grasp the technical meaning, we are not able "look" into another persons mind in order to figure out what they are thinking.

I think OP wrote it that way on purpose, to be witty (especially as he followed it with a wink).

I have a problem reading this sort of thing as well, although I can usually figure out what is intended if I reread. Text-speak bothers me too.

Was the incorrectly punctuated title for ironic effect?

Anyway, blatant mistakes in punctuation, grammar and spelling always 'jump' out at me like blunt daggers.
I can't understand how people can get such simple things so very incorrect and yes, I know that's inconsiderate of me.

LOL, I missed this totally, his joke was quite subtle. Good eye UnusualSuspect.

I guess this is proof we tend to miss social context.

Intentional, m'dear, intentional. I stuck a winking smiley in there hoping to indicate this, but I'm happy to see others are as naive as I am . The feeling you got when you noticed that is EXACTLY what I'm talking about. Hits me right around the gut region (fragment intentional, for effect). I wanted to convey the emotional reaction along with the post, but almost took it out thinking that those I wanted to reach might be put off by the error.

No worries.

@Millie: EXCELLENT catch! (my second set of quotes are actually apostrophies) I also thought about throwing in unbalanced parenthesis too but that would have driven ME crazy on the re-reads.

D'oh!

I so totally know the feeling you're talking about. A friend of mine who teaches dyslexics says that kinetic learners (rather than visual or auditory learners) are the best spellers, because a mispelled word FEELS WRONG to them, in their gut. I am a kinetic learner so I think that might explain it.

Have you heard about the guys who were trekking around America correcting grammar on public signs? I love the idea, it must be so satisfying to actually DO something about it.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/ ... 2266.story

I must be a kinetic learner too then, because I definitely experience a distinctive feeling when I see something written incorrectly. In fact, I feel this more strongly than I feel left and right.
By the way, you actually misspelled "misspelled" in your text. That definitely felt wrong to me.
Sorry, I felt the need to put it in bold.

all the 'smilies' look the same to me. sorry, but reading emotion on someone's face is baffling to me, even hovering my mouse over the smilie to see what emotion/meaning, etc. doesn't enlighten me much, either. Just one of those Aspie things, I guess.

So now that we're all together here and BEFORE we start falling all over each other's grammar and spelling issues, what do we have in common?

Do you have extreme attention to detail in your everyday life?
Are you artistic or math/science driven? Is that even a valid distinction?
Are you extremely logical?
Are you aggressive? Passive? Emotionless?
How many languages can you speak well enough to be understood?
Do you have a near-perfect or great memory?
Do you have a higher than normal IQ?

What is it that separates us from the pack and makes us something of a 'grammatical subset' of the majority of WP posters? Why do we care so much about it and others here don't?

I care about grammar and spelling and it may be an age thing? I do however make many typing errors and do not bother correcting as much as I should when on this forum. (this post is therefore a disclaimer!)

I admit it --I'm a grammar, spelling, punctuation and syntax snob, but I seek at all turns to give the well meaning the benefit of any doubt (and I myself only recently managed to screw up something on the there/their/they're continuum).

What I love is when some keyboard-warrior bozo tries to upbraid others as "rediculas" and suchlike. Fish in a barrel!