Messages

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English & Linguistics / Thirty Hundred

« on: September 21, 2005, 12:21:48 PM »

The other day I was trying to figure out how to say 2053 differently.  I ended up saying twenty-hundred and fifty-three and it sounded really stupid.  I like the usual two-thousand and fifty-three.  (By the way I was trying to say the year 2053)

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English & Linguistics / My English Professor doesn't know English!

« on: September 21, 2005, 11:07:28 AM »

If someone wants to call me Becky I will let them although it is more common to call me Becca.  I like Becca better than Becky but at the same time I think of a chicken saying,"Bek-ah!"  So, Rebecca is probably the best name to say.  I had some friends call me Reba for the longest while and it irritated me beyond belief.  

Batman do you get this all the time when meeting new people? "What do you like to be called, Becca, Becky or Rebecca?"  I usually just say,"whatever you want,"  although as a teen I only wanted to be called Beck or Becca.  That's changed now I can say....oh man, this name is more complicated than I originally thought!  

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English & Linguistics / Which vs. What

« on: September 09, 2005, 04:45:00 PM »

"What" seems to sound better to me, it leaves some vagueness while, "which" is more specific and narrow.  That's just me.

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English & Linguistics / My English Professor doesn't know English!

« on: September 09, 2005, 12:04:44 PM »

...I mean she has alot of great ideas and she is really an awesome teacher.  It is just awful to try and pick out what she is actually saying.  Some students have resorted to saying,"Can you write that on the board?"  And she calls me Ree-becca Nee-bocker.

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English & Linguistics / The joys of corporate writing

« on: September 07, 2005, 05:36:49 PM »

That surprises me that a business professional would talk like that.  Didn't they learn specificity and brevity as a college freshman?

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English & Linguistics / My English Professor doesn't know English!

« on: September 07, 2005, 01:48:31 PM »

My English professor hardly speaks a word of English (she's from India) and today she said,"Blake's poems are full of more sorrowfuller images than people believe."

What the $%@?

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English & Linguistics / The Perfect Language?

« on: August 27, 2005, 10:18:37 AM »

Nice touch Scott

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English & Linguistics / The Perfect Language?

« on: August 24, 2005, 10:25:44 AM »

I'm not even sure what constitues "pure" language anyway.  I could be wrong, but it seems to me that language is simply a communicative tool best suited for a particular culture or group, but it is never pure or perfect.
I guess it depends on how close to pure a language is.  I mean, how many things has mankind made perfect anyway?  I haven't noticed anything yet.
Although I have heard somewhere that Mandarin Chinese is a very pure language (just not sure why).

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English & Linguistics / The Perfect Language?

« on: August 23, 2005, 09:24:42 PM »

Well, this same teacher blabbled on and on about how his former college professors wore different types of hats.  And the interesting thing is, is this is an American Lit class!  It just strikes me odd that he got a degree in this stuff.

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English & Linguistics / The Perfect Language?

« on: August 23, 2005, 03:53:27 PM »

One of my teachers enthusiastically believes that the highest form of language, greater than even "American-English" is the English spoken by the royals and upperclass Brits (of today), in fact he even mentions that what these upperclass speak have no accent.  Isn't language just determined by culture and geography? I think this sounds kind of ignorant, I mean how do you determine the "most perfect" language?  

Any ideas would be helpful.

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English & Linguistics / Words that you can never, ever say right

« on: August 18, 2005, 11:46:03 PM »

My sister-in-law and I debated about whether mayonnaise was pronounced exactly how it was spelled or how me and my brother say it,"man-aize." She got out a dictionary and well I have to say the proof was in the pudding and she was right (or was it mister Webster?).  Of course she mocked us for our ignorance but it was all in good fun.  

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English & Linguistics / Words that you can never, ever say right

« on: August 18, 2005, 08:48:04 PM »

The "young girls" thing is found in most other languages too.  Consider the valley girl. (just an interesting observation) And I think accents go further than even the regional.  They are found in any group really. Almost, to define yourself, which is just fine.  But just so we don't fall off the specificity ladder, in general, the dialect I referred to is almost like a learned group talk to define who other people aren't.  (hopefully that made any sense at all)
 

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English & Linguistics / Words that you can never, ever say right

« on: August 18, 2005, 08:39:42 PM »

let me clarify myself (maybe I should be more specific) certain people in southern Utah (specifically teenage girls) tend to talk snobbish and they say things to sound cute when they actually aren't.  Trust me I am from the area and don't necessarily talk like that.  Therefore, it is totally not an accent.  Maybe I shouldn't have assumed you knew anything about that area.

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English & Linguistics / Words that you can never, ever say right

« on: August 18, 2005, 08:05:33 PM »

yeah it's almost like,"oh, I am just so cute so I am goink to talk like I have a low IQ!"  What-ever.  

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English & Linguistics / Words that you can never, ever say right

« on: August 18, 2005, 05:20:50 PM »

if you want to hear some sickening pronunciations, visit southern utah.  You hear some greats such as,"take the pitcher off the wall."  "let's go to the mou-en" and, "I'm goink to the store."

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English & Linguistics / Words that you can never, ever say right

« on: August 13, 2005, 10:23:54 PM »

How about Canadian as: Canahdian or realtor as: realator.