h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm wondering what my fellow researchers think of grammatical rules and their relationship to the Internet. There are very few people I know who make an effort at correct grammar and spelling on the Internet. This disturbs me; correct grammar and spelling are very important to me when using the written word.

Any thoughts?

--Cooper

This has been one of my complaints for a _long_ time. Still, it's more their problem than mine. If something someone writes to me is too hard to read, I ignore it. It is somewhat sad, though, that many people seem to have no idea what a punctuation mark is.

What I think causes it is that people get so used to the computer correcting their spelling and grammar automatically that they don't bother learning how write on their own, so when they get set loose on the Internet, they type badly and expect it to make sense.

-Twinkle, who disabled spell-check on his computer.

Hooray! Like-minded people. I'm now one a minority, being a teenager who doesn't own a mobile 'phone, but it's impossible not to notice the influence of text-messaging in the deterioration of people's use of written language. I get most worried when people say that it doesn't matter how a word is spelt, so long as the meaning is conveyed. I know that standardised spelling is a relatively new addition to the language, but it's here now and so people should bloody well use it!

look to the deliberate mispelling of items by big companies as a fault . Just spelling phine with an F really jives me , plenty of other examples just seems like laziness .

There's increasing Americanisation of spelling though in industry and science, which explains the "phine" issue. I dislike the removal of dipthongs. I'm archaic, but I like it.

Ah ha you spotted the careful English gentlemans inflection of tone in the pronounciation of the word phone , Cricket and warm beer all round chaps .

rules live if u live by them...

the function of language is communication. if the rules of a language don't aid that function maybe it's time for new rules

What really gets me is RanDom acts of CapiTalisation in the middle of words. oh and trade names with no initial caps at all.

I am also constantly irritated by the way that MS Grammar checker rejects my use of the word "which". I was brought up on the King James Version of the Bible which uses which where MS uses that or who: Our Father, which art in heaven...

That's about it, really.

agcB

I'm pretty sure that the capital letter is dying out in it's present form. I don't use one for my name online (why not? I wonder...hmm..). I'd never be without my capital letters in real life, but they do seem to be slipping all over the place, in brand names etc etc.

Will you please explain what you ment by Americanization? I don't understand.

aktualy, english wud b mor lojikal if we got rid of a lot of unesesari alfabets ( c, k and q) and alfabet kombinations ( ph, gh) and redefind spelings to match the sounds.

sory not k

My take on internet grammar and spelling depends on the media. This is not a real-time forum. Most of you will read this hours, perhaps days after I have written it. And it's going to be here forever (barring a censoring). Given that, I should make the best effort I can to make this readable. My punctuation and spelling not only make it easier to read, but their proper use marks me out as someone who at least halfway knows what they're doing, so I can be taken somewhat seriously. It's very difficult to take anything seriously from someone on H2G2 who consistently violates the rules of written English.

In a real-time media, like a chat room, my grammar goes straight into the toilet. The words aren't going to be there long, and it's more important to keep the conversation flowing than to write properly. In this media, writing properly is the best way to keep the conversation flowing, but in real-time, typing delays will kill your conversation faster than poor English. So when I'm chatting, the capitals disappear. I use shortcut words like "haveta" or "gonna." Final punctuation ceases to be, except in the case of questions. And I make very little effort to preview my words, so my typos stand.

But, as long as I'm using this media, I am practicing proper English, and so my skills are not diminished. People who permanently eschew proper language do themselves a severe disservice, since they will soon forget any other way of writing.

The thing is, communication isn't the only function of language. There is beauty in language for it's own sake - that's why people read novels and poetry. Saying that language's only function is communication is like saying that portrait painting is defunct because you can just use a camera. Okay, lots of people say that, but personally I believe that they're wrong.

As for the argument of communication being the sole function, then surely it is in our interests to make sure that we can communicate our ideas as fluently as possible, and a good vocabulary and grasp of grammar will assist in this.

Americanisation - the tendency of English words to be expressed in the American form - for example "sulfur" instead of "sulphur", "fetus" instead of "foetus". Its influence is mostly on grammar though - for example my pet hate (and one, unfortunately, of which the late DNA was a practitioner) , "Go jump in a lake", where it should be "Go AND jump in a lake". Also the frequent reversal of dating conventions, eg. "May 4" instead of "4th May".

I can't even write my least favourite - the one with the reversed "R" in Toys R (backwards) Us. What do they mean? Toys are we? Phah!

I don't see whats wrong with some of it like 2 standing in for to but fink standing in for think is silly, as llong as you can understand it easly it's ok
Se Ya
Jenni'c
Keep Smiling:') :')

But if you can read half way competently then 2 standing in for to and fink standing in for think actually slow you down.

Of course if you can't read competently, then they don't slow you down.

There are a couple of appalling spellers here on site - but you will find that they are dyslexic. And it must be considerably more annoying for them to have to live with dyslexia than for us to have to read badly typed entries. (Actually I find it quite interesting to see how words are miss-spelled).

Also 'fink' is a perfectly good word meaning 'one who is disapproved of or is held in contempt' - quite appropriate really.

agcB

I'm not picking on you personally, so don't get mad, but this does an excellent job of illustrating my point:

Jenni's short post, with several errors of spelling and punctuation, took me longer to read than Ben's much longer follower. That's because I had to read, then re-read, paying special attention to the parts that I missed. It's an effort to read something like that. If it had been a long post, I would probably have dismissed it and skipped ahead to the next.

There's also something that has yet to be brought up. In the real world, we all form a first impression from people based on their appearance, their manner of speaking, etc. While they can be misleading at times (especially with shy people), we have discovered that they can be an effective evaluative tool, and those first impressions color our relationships with people during the awkward "getting to know you" phase of any relationship.

Here, we do not have those clues. All we have are our words, and how they are presented. I find myself making a first impression based on the writing style of whoever I am reading. My initial impression of someone who writes badly is that they are poorly educated. That initial impression will disappear when I learn that they are very young, dyslexic, or writing in a second language, but if I don't learn one of those things, I will find myself beginning to dismiss their posts as uninformed and unimportant. And since they are so difficult to read, they can't possibly be entertaining.

And, most important of all... if you continue to practice poor English, your skills diminish. If you use this media as an opportunity to learn and practice good language skills, you will continue to hone them. Nothing is more important than the ability to write and speak well... see the first impressions paragraph above. What is a job hiring if not a decision made on a first impression based on your oral (interview) and written (resume) communication skills?

I'm impressed with the response.

As to dipthongs and other archaic spelling issues: As a poet, I tend to look for what sort of meaning a certain spelling imparts. For example, grey and gray are two different colours (grey as in Gandalf the Grey and gray as in Confederate gray). Most of the time, though, I use whichever spelling looks better. This is usually the dipthong spelling (foetus, aestivate, daemon). That's the beauty of alternate spellings!

Spelling doesn't just show pronunciation; it shows the history of the word. Why would one remove so much history by simplifying a spelling? "Onomatopoeia", for example, is a word whose spelling reflects its (not "it's"!) history.

The purpose of language: Communication is a primary concern of language. The purpose of rules is to function as a protocol for communication. No such set of protocols will be easy to understand or implement, including new rules. Language is work! Language is a skill everyone should have, but it is not a basic skill.

I also think that language must constantly evolve to survive. New rules and spellings should be invented. New words are necessary to deal with new situations. New rules should work within the system, however, and certainly must be logical.

What do you think of the increasing trend toward using the apostrophe to pluralise ("I had three dog's.") and using the "s" to form the possesive ("That chicken is Jerrys!")?

--Cooper