Showing posts with label English language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label English language. Show all posts

11.29.2008

some cute Konglish

A student today gave me my favorite bit of Konglish to date: "dog happy," "dog excited" and "dog hungry" - he had just learned "dog tired" and thought it could be expounded into any adjective form (and why not, I say?). I think I'm going to make it my personal mission to infect several people's slang with this one.

Another good one I ran into today: "Thank you, Mr. Weiss. Everyone please give him big hands." (How the heck is one hand, however big it is, supposed to help you clap, anyway? Ever thought about it?)

8.24.2007

adjectives of emancipation

Copy eds, this one's for you. Everyone else, you probably want to move on before you're totally geekified.

One of the best parts of moving out of the career of words was the freedom to take back my language and the authority to use it any old way I please - by whim or by reason. I can't claim that all my grammatical faux pas will be statements: I'm still quite prone to ignorance and typos. However, to keep some shred of my former desk dignity (quiet, you snickerers! ... and keep fighting the good fight, copyeds!), I am compelled to document that at least some of my deviations are intentional.

Just for y'all's information (yesseree bob, I sure did just use the possessive form of that), you will see the false plural used for gender-neutral singular pronouns. I may use those verboten words like "lure" and "mull," and I may say "like" when it by standard grammar should be "such as." Oh and by the way, I'm just gonna use "may" for "might" - quite frequently. Deal with it.

I'll split my infinitives, call this a "website" and use "dork" with complete abandon. And if "healthcare" is good enough for Webster's, who am I to argue? But then again, I'll use a whole smathering of words Webster's has never heard of.

I'll probably talk about "healthy" food, break off a lot of prefixes that AP has no qualm with, dangle prepositions and put my "only"s any old place I please. I'm going to also use "blonde" as an adjective on principle. On the other hand, I'll likely as not talk about "manmade" things ... in fact, I'm pretty sure I've already gone and done it (ditto on "healthy").

I will definitely use "failed to" on more than one occasion - probably "in order to," as well - and I'm quite the fan of a good quaint "ain't" every now and again. I see no reason why "headquartered" can't be a verb, and I stand firm that there's a good many uses for passive voice.

The list goes on, but I think I've solidified my ridiculousness quite enough for one post. :)

Feel free to add your own grammatical rebellions in the comments!