WTF english and false synonyms

[WolfEyes]

I might (Ph.D. in Heritage Studies from Arkansas State University), but in fact he is not saying what you imply he is saying. Note how your quote makes a slight of hand and substitutes "patterns" for "rules." And patterns of language do mark region, race, and class. There is discrimination based on assumptions created by your language use, but that is not the same as setting the kind of inflexible "rules" that you seem to indicate exist. Reading the entire page, he is coming down on the side of descriptivists by examining the historical contingency of grammar and usage.

So if you hold that absolute rules exist, you ARE arguing with Adam Brock.

You asked me who has the authority to dictate the rules. I gave you the answer. RICH WHITE MEN.

You're also reading a lot more into my words than what is there. I have never said that I believe absolute rules exist (there are a few). Certainly not when the language is constantly changing and words take on meanings they never had before.

How about I become president and make Lakota the official national language.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

An LMG. Never a LMG.

 

[WolfEyes]

I believe there's a difference between evolution of language - like neologisms or even brand new definitions of existing words (which happens) - and incorrect usage of existing things.

Like, the thing people brought up with "you're" and "your". Using one when you should use the other isn't an evolution or a vernacular thing, it's just a mistake.

A mistake that would never have been made if the person had just paid a little more attention in English class. Now if you are talking typos, that's a bit different. I usually catch mine, which there can be a lot of them. Especially when I am in a hurry but I still take the time to proofread before and after posting. Something I wish very strongly that everyone did.

 

[NiranV Dean]

An LMG. Never a LMG.

AHAHAHA I KNEW IT!

a LMG just sounds so wrong.

I'm going to rub that under someone's nose.

Now my question is, what exactly even dictates whether "an" or "a" is used? It's a light machine gun but it's AN LMG. It sounds like it's simply determined by whatever sounds better.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

If you provide a quote as an answer to a question I will take that quote, with all the implied assumptions, as your answer. Your answer implies that you believe that absolute, prescriptive rules exist. That is, a commonly used construction can be simultaneously widely understood and at the same time "wrong."


It is of course easier to control your answer if you answer instead of throwing quotes.

You asked me who has the authority to dictate the rules. I gave you the answer. RICH WHITE MEN.

You're also reading a lot more into my words than what is there. I have never said that I believe absolute rules exist (there are a few). Certainly not when the language is constantly changing and words take on meanings they never had before.

How about I become president and make Lakota the official national language.

I asked what made a widely understood construction "wrong" when it was in fact functioning as intended by the speaker and listener. You told me who has the socioeconomic power to make their dialect the preferred version. And you didn't even answer, you threw out an out of context quote that is undermined by the surrounding page.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Hmmm.....I dunno. I think there's a good debate to be had over whether acronyms should be considered by the pronunciation of the individual letters or the pronunciation of the actual words the acronym comes from, when deciding whether to use "a" vs "an". Particularly since some acronyms are pronounced as if they were whole words, not just a set of letters!

For example, talking about the computer component, you would say "a RAM module", not "an RAM module". Because you pronounced "RAM" like "ram", not enunciating "ar-ay-em".

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Use "an" before a vowel sound. Since "L" is pronounced "el" you use "an."

 

[WolfEyes]

Normally "a" is used before words that start with a consonant and "an" before words that start with a vowel. It is a bit more complicated than that but that is the basic "rule".

A Versus An

 

[WolfEyes]

Hmmm.....I dunno. I think there's a good debate to be had over whether acronyms should be considered by the pronunciation of the individual letters or the pronunciation of the actual words the acronym comes from, when deciding whether to use "a" vs "an". Particularly since some acronyms are pronounced as if they were whole words, not just a set of letters!

For example, talking about the computer component, you would say "a RAM module", not "an RAM module". Because you pronounced "RAM" like "ram", not enunciating "ar-ay-em".

R is a consonant.

 

[WolfEyes]

If you provide a quote as an answer to a question I will take that quote, with all the implied assumptions, as your answer. Your answer implies that you believe that absolute, prescriptive rules exist. That is, a commonly used construction can be simultaneously widely understood and at the same time "wrong."


It is of course easier to control your answer if you answer instead of throwing quotes.


I asked what made a widely understood construction "wrong" when it was in fact functioning as intended by the speaker and listener. You told me who has the socioeconomic power to make their dialect the preferred version. And you didn't even answer, you threw out an out of context quote that is undermined by the surrounding page.

Try reading what I actually said and not what you want me to say just so you can argue and get pissed off at me again for no reason.

 

[NiranV Dean]

So basically it is whether it sounds good or not. Based on a basic rule that an sounds better when followed by a vowel, with a few exceptions. I guess an exception would be "an hour" then since H is pronounced "age" but when pronouncing the whole word it does not start with a vowel...wait... you pronounce hour like "our"...shit....

 

[WolfEyes]

So basically it is whether it sounds good or not. Based on a basic rule that an sounds better when followed by a vowel, with a few exceptions. I guess an exception would be "an hour" then since H is pronounced "age" but when pronouncing the whole word it does not start with a vowel...wait... you pronounce hour like "our"...shit....

Now you're getting it!

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Okay I got one for you guys.

A long time ago, I remember watching some Saturday-afternoon kid-ucational short from before I was born, something like Schoolhouse Rock but maybe not Schoolhouse Rock exactly. Anyways, this thing was talking about vowels, and it listed them as "A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y". I don't remember it ever giving an example of a word in which Y functioned as a vowel....or even what exactly made Y a "vowel" in some cases but not in others. I also never heard about this rule in school, that's for sure.

SO! Older people who grew up with this weird rule - please explain it to me.

 

[WolfEyes]

Okay I got one for you guys.

A long time ago, I remember watching some Saturday-afternoon kid-ucational short from before I was born, something like Schoolhouse Rock but maybe not Schoolhouse Rock exactly. Anyways, this thing was talking about vowels, and it listed them as "A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y". I don't remember it ever giving an example of a word in which Y functioned as a vowel....or even what exactly made Y a "vowel" in some cases but not in others. I also never heard about this rule in school, that's for sure.

SO! Older people who grew up with this weird rule - please explain it to me.

Is the letter Y a vowel or a consonant? | Oxford Dictionaries

All you had to do was google "y as a vowel".

 

[NiranV Dean]

So... an young and a young person are both technically correct although only a young person sounds correct.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

You used someone else's words which I am not entirely certain you understood. I am not pissed off. I am discussing your post.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

So... an young and a young person are both technically correct although only a young person sounds correct.

Building on your earlier observation about H, I've heard both "a historic occasion" and "an historic occasion".

 

[NiranV Dean]

Ahh. The undefined articles. NOT THE UNDEFINED ARTICLES!

"A"s attacking "An"s and an a attacking me. SEND HELP!

 

[Veritable Quandry]

The OSU campus bus system uses an automated system to announce the busses, using the format "This is a [direction] bound [route]" Some days i would rather ride the long way round on a west bound bus than hear "a east bound" at every stop.

 

[WolfEyes]

Building on your earlier observation about H, I've heard both "a historic occasion" and "an historic occasion".

Both are acceptable. "A historic" is the preferred.

See graphs: "A historic" or "an historic"?