I refuse to debate the nuances of the english language
October 18th 2011 03:25
I know my way around the english language pretty well. Its my natural tongue, which, admittedly, doesnt mean much. Ive met plenty of foriegners who speak better english than the people I grew up with. I however, have been in love with english since I could first read at two years old. Ive railed against the changes to it, then embraced them, and now returned to my original stance - stop butchering her.
I loved english so much that by my senoir years in school I was one of the selected handful to go into the highest class, which was called at that time Related English. Of that small handful - less than 20 - only one dropped maths to do 3 units of Related English, and that student was me. I won the writing competition three years in a row, and one of my science competition entries, a story, came second in the science competition. I did not perform as well as I intended to in the HSC, simply because even though I loved to write ten page essays and remember pages of quotes, Ive always been a flamboyant writer, and thats not what they are looking for in an essay. I have a tendancy to gloss over things that need in depth detail, and ramble on about things of personal interest to myself but have no bearing on my argument. Looking back, I can see that.
I know my writing has improved, and any mistsakes I tend to make are more about laziness than anything else (eg, my lack of apostraphes) and Ive never been a particularly good speller. However, when chatting on internet forums I always allow incredible amounts of slack to all and any. Even with the use of emoticons there is no way of actually knowing how a comment is intended, and the context cannot ever be known. We can apply one that we think might fit, one that suits how we wish to take the remark, but its all conjecture. When chatting on all internet forums I apply the broadest context possible and I expect the same courtesy.
In my forays into the JREF, when I realized that we were debating the english language more than the actual ideas involved, I bowed out. I perservered at first, believing that I was there to find the right words, but now I think I need a whole other language entirely. In time I may just forge communication between the skeptical world and the spiritual one, but its going to take a lot more time than I have.
The incident that made me the most angry - and I would not be blogging at all if it had not, so I suppose I should thank the buffoon - is on an equine forum I frequent. Someone was asking about white markings on Fresian horses. I dont know much about Fresians, but I like them so I know a little. I replied to her that Fresians can only be registered if they have no white markings, and this implies that brightly marked Fresians do exist, they are simply not registered.
I was using the strictest context of 'Fresians' and I already stated, they cannot be registered if they have white markings. Therefore my use of 'brightly marked' was not in the context of a paint horse, meaning 'marked all over the place' but brightly marked for a Fresian meaning a snip, a sock, a star.
And someone jumped on after me and retorted 'There are no brightly marked Fresians' and proceeded to explain all that I thought I had already explained, but using a lot more words. Now I know some people just like to feel smart, especially on the internet, but its such a shame when people dont even have the most basic understanding of the english language to understand that they only repeating something their 'agressor' has said, but in more words and with more heat. Quite frankly, its ridiculous, and I join forums only because the internet is a wonderful thing, allowing me to converse with people all over the world, but if we are only debating the english language, Im sure I could find a forum for that too.
And theres also this - the unthinkable, to so many people - days, yes, whole days go by that my computer doesnt get turned on. If we are going to start arguing the meaning of subjective, I seriously have better things to do.
I loved english so much that by my senoir years in school I was one of the selected handful to go into the highest class, which was called at that time Related English. Of that small handful - less than 20 - only one dropped maths to do 3 units of Related English, and that student was me. I won the writing competition three years in a row, and one of my science competition entries, a story, came second in the science competition. I did not perform as well as I intended to in the HSC, simply because even though I loved to write ten page essays and remember pages of quotes, Ive always been a flamboyant writer, and thats not what they are looking for in an essay. I have a tendancy to gloss over things that need in depth detail, and ramble on about things of personal interest to myself but have no bearing on my argument. Looking back, I can see that.
I know my writing has improved, and any mistsakes I tend to make are more about laziness than anything else (eg, my lack of apostraphes) and Ive never been a particularly good speller. However, when chatting on internet forums I always allow incredible amounts of slack to all and any. Even with the use of emoticons there is no way of actually knowing how a comment is intended, and the context cannot ever be known. We can apply one that we think might fit, one that suits how we wish to take the remark, but its all conjecture. When chatting on all internet forums I apply the broadest context possible and I expect the same courtesy.
In my forays into the JREF, when I realized that we were debating the english language more than the actual ideas involved, I bowed out. I perservered at first, believing that I was there to find the right words, but now I think I need a whole other language entirely. In time I may just forge communication between the skeptical world and the spiritual one, but its going to take a lot more time than I have.
The incident that made me the most angry - and I would not be blogging at all if it had not, so I suppose I should thank the buffoon - is on an equine forum I frequent. Someone was asking about white markings on Fresian horses. I dont know much about Fresians, but I like them so I know a little. I replied to her that Fresians can only be registered if they have no white markings, and this implies that brightly marked Fresians do exist, they are simply not registered.
I was using the strictest context of 'Fresians' and I already stated, they cannot be registered if they have white markings. Therefore my use of 'brightly marked' was not in the context of a paint horse, meaning 'marked all over the place' but brightly marked for a Fresian meaning a snip, a sock, a star.
And someone jumped on after me and retorted 'There are no brightly marked Fresians' and proceeded to explain all that I thought I had already explained, but using a lot more words. Now I know some people just like to feel smart, especially on the internet, but its such a shame when people dont even have the most basic understanding of the english language to understand that they only repeating something their 'agressor' has said, but in more words and with more heat. Quite frankly, its ridiculous, and I join forums only because the internet is a wonderful thing, allowing me to converse with people all over the world, but if we are only debating the english language, Im sure I could find a forum for that too.
And theres also this - the unthinkable, to so many people - days, yes, whole days go by that my computer doesnt get turned on. If we are going to start arguing the meaning of subjective, I seriously have better things to do.
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