Interesting post. Well, at least interesting enough to hold my attention long enough to have a question.....(I use multiple periods to indicate that I am not done "speaking", that the thought will continue, I want the reader to pause and think, OR I have something else to say immediately afterwards). Yeah, it can get annoying at times, but it does serve a purpose, though arguably one that is already taken care of with a comma. ....and yeah it can work backwards too, especially to continue a previous thought interrupted with verbose explanations. I also use caps as emphasis, not for YELLING, but more on that later.
Anyway, back to my question.
What about typing in phonetics? I'm not talking about the sometimes hard to decipher text of Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye", but a "gonna" and "shoulda" here and there to help express a more relaxed mood than "going to" and "shoud have". Likewise, if I throw a "THANKS!" at the end of a post, am I really interpreted as yelling it? I would hope not. I'm just showing a little more thanks than "thanks, or even Thanks", each different levels of emphasis in their own right.
I guess that my point is that spoken language, the associated non-verbal cues, and other nuances can often be quite lost in typed messages. We gots to do somting to gets our points acrost. Whatever those points may be.....
Anyway, back to my question.
What about typing in phonetics? I'm not talking about the sometimes hard to decipher text of Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye", but a "gonna" and "shoulda" here and there to help express a more relaxed mood than "going to" and "shoud have". Likewise, if I throw a "THANKS!" at the end of a post, am I really interpreted as yelling it? I would hope not. I'm just showing a little more thanks than "thanks, or even Thanks", each different levels of emphasis in their own right.
I guess that my point is that spoken language, the associated non-verbal cues, and other nuances can often be quite lost in typed messages. We gots to do somting to gets our points acrost. Whatever those points may be.....
You lucky people who has English as your native language.
When you combine two words to make a new one ny put those words after each other: Nuclear and bomb makes nuclear bomb.
In Swedish you glue the two words together: hot + dog makes hotdog.
The guy who sells hotdogs is a "hotdogseller". This is how you make up words according to the book of grammar. You get it?!
But many people has started to separate the different parts which makes some stuff sound very awkward: "hot dogseller" "brown haired nurse".
In a supermarket close to us there's a sign saying "KORT KASSA" where KORT means CARD and SHORT and KASSA is CASHIER. What does this means - a fast lane (for people with no more that 5 items), or a place where you only may pay with a card????
A general notice, I don't like when people use odd abbreviations just for the sake of it. Especially in here odd words spellings and abbreviations may confuse people that don't have English as native language. I know that "color" and "colour" are American- and British-English words meaning the sake but when someone writes "ho" instead of "hello" ..nah!
When you combine two words to make a new one ny put those words after each other: Nuclear and bomb makes nuclear bomb.
In Swedish you glue the two words together: hot + dog makes hotdog.
The guy who sells hotdogs is a "hotdogseller". This is how you make up words according to the book of grammar. You get it?!
But many people has started to separate the different parts which makes some stuff sound very awkward: "hot dogseller" "brown haired nurse".
In a supermarket close to us there's a sign saying "KORT KASSA" where KORT means CARD and SHORT and KASSA is CASHIER. What does this means - a fast lane (for people with no more that 5 items), or a place where you only may pay with a card????
A general notice, I don't like when people use odd abbreviations just for the sake of it. Especially in here odd words spellings and abbreviations may confuse people that don't have English as native language. I know that "color" and "colour" are American- and British-English words meaning the sake but when someone writes "ho" instead of "hello" ..nah!
Well that is sort of what you end up with when people try to split words (in Swedish that is).
OT. A topic in a Swedish forum about misspellinggave an answer from someone who had seen a word document at his job where the author had used the spelling correction without checking if the suggestions were reasonable or not. A female collegue named Bodil, was refereed to as Bordello throughout the document.
DigitalJunkie said:Yea,sometimes it's very hard to convey infliction,and emotion in black-and-white text.
But I guess that's what Smilies are for.
Yeah, but those smilies can irritate just as much as some of the other "short cuts". Not to mention that learning them can be tantamount to learning another, although grossly simplified, language.
Besides, I hate to take my fingers of the key board, rarely use the mouse/trackball, and frankly feel just a bit childish using "emoticons"..... so
<<<took me over a minute to find, when I coulda just done "PLLLLLLGGGHHHH"..... 
Aengus said:
canusmuse, the word that does this in speech is "um", which, when overused, always makes me think that the speaker doesn't know what s/he wants to say.
Though I admit that I too use ellipses to indicate that some sort of continuation is expected to follow
Regards.
Aengus
Now THAT is a pet peeve of mine......um, yeah.....drives me nuts. Granted it's a short trip, but still....um, BLEH!
To me "um" indicates that the speaker is not sure what they are going to say next, NOTHING MORE(not yelling).....lol(yeah every now and then I gotta pull out a lol or afaik....just too convienent...hehe)
camusmuse said:
Things like "um", "er", "eh", etc. are called "filled pauses", and speakers use them for a variety of different reasons. Sometimes it's to buy time while they think of a word, but they can also be used to hold the floor and keep someone else from interrupting, or as a way of emphasizing the interestingness of what comes after the pause.
Just a brief note from your, um, neighborhood, er, linguist...
....and a good note it is. That's why I went with "pet peeve", I know it has its place, but it still drives me nuts. Especially when overused. I have a friend who is terrible with um, particularly in public speaking situations; I guess that’s where my neurosis comes from, at least for this topic....
Nice to hear from a linguist......bad pun intended...lol.
Nice to hear from a linguist......bad pun intended...lol.
"Um" can also be a way of admitting that you're embarrassed about your next statement (perhaps that the spell checker had to correct your spelling of "embarrassed.")
I prefer to avoid abbreviations that may be unfamiliar to a non-native English speaker - otherwise I'm alienating most of the world. Besides, an abbreviation or slang that is readily understood in my region and my social peers could be completely incomprehensible to someone else only fifty miles away. And that would be totally pants.
I prefer to avoid abbreviations that may be unfamiliar to a non-native English speaker - otherwise I'm alienating most of the world. Besides, an abbreviation or slang that is readily understood in my region and my social peers could be completely incomprehensible to someone else only fifty miles away. And that would be totally pants.
Then, in the earlier days of computerspeak, there was the case of a secretary who made a mistake by using the words "to all customers" a number of times, when it should have been "by all customers".
Using her knowledge of computers, she instructed the comp. to change "to" to "by".
And hey presto, the computer obliged by faithfully making the required change to: "by all cusbymers"
Using her knowledge of computers, she instructed the comp. to change "to" to "by".
And hey presto, the computer obliged by faithfully making the required change to: "by all cusbymers"
TerryO said:
W.C.Fields and fish:
"I never drink water - fish make love in it."
I agree entirely with the opening post in this thread. Equally, I disagree with those who suggest that the position taken in that post is "offensive".
The world would be a better place were people everywhere not so easily offended.
In closing, I would add that a number have pointed out that it is a courtesy to our foreign friends for the native English-speakers to write correctly, or at least make an effort to do so. Once again I heartily agree.
7N7
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