My PTs to Adam Meredith have disappeared!!

Nope still there.

Howard

The brief joy that a PT brings can turn to burden if hoarded over assiduously.

They are for me, from their epistolary intent, graffito rather than engravement.

Monday & Fridays - by prior arrangement.

Cheers Adam

I will email you before we travel.

Adam

I will not be PT'ing you as I would need help to understand your answers, we never got up to big words at my school,

CNC

A dictionary may help if the context doesn't.

quote:

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epistolary intent, graffito rather than engravement.

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Epistle - noun

Epistolary - adjective

Graffiti - plural of something to be erased (one hopes.)

Graffito - singular of the above.

Engravement - something more cutting or digging - and permanent.

Regards,

Steve.

Steven

Where would we be without you.

Exomologesis

- InfoPop "Auto Answer" facility - default setting "Pretentious, unintelligible". Won't be using that again.

quote:

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Originally posted by Adam Meredith:
Exomologesis

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I had to google that word, but I now like it so much that I'll incorporate it into my daily usage. I'm sure native English speakers will be comfortable with it.

quote:

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Originally posted by Adam Meredith:
The brief joy that a PT brings can turn to burden if hoarded over assiduously.

They are for me, from their epistolary intent, graffito rather than engravement.

Monday & Fridays - by prior arrangement.

---

Sir? Sir? Shouldn't "over assiduously" have a hyphen Sir?

Nime

quote:

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Originally posted by Adam Meredith:
Exomologesis

- InfoPop "Auto Answer" facility - default setting "Pretentious, unintelligible". Won't be using that again.

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Adam

I like the occasional obscure post.

Set the "Auto Answer" facility to "Random", I say.

Deane

quote:

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Sir? Sir? Shouldn't "over assiduously" have a hyphen Sir?

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With respect Nime, your use of English is superb, affording you the right to express such pedantry.

However, I suggest to you that on occasions you may substitute a full stop followed by a capital letter, with a simple comma.

I admit that on occasions I don't use commas appropriately, and, if anything I have a tendency to over-use them.

Regards,

Steve.

The pedantry from some quarters regarding prescriptive grammar is a class issue IMO.

The industrial revolution brought with it a new class of people in the new-rich and the ability to distinguish social standing by wealth alone was no longer fail-safe. But it was easy to tell "breeding" by the use of the language. The hangover from this is evident in the assumption that the prescriptive grammar for the English language is the "real" grammar and the descriptive grammar is for linguists.

Deane

Deane,

As a linguist I take the Ferdinand de Saussaure view that grammar rules are prescriptive not descriptive.

I favour any use of language that facilitates communication. Good presentation - i.e: appropriate spelling, syntax and punctuation aids the process of understanding what is written.

Good, clear diction do the same for spoken language. Regional dialects certainly don't help this cause.

Presentation is as important as content.

However, I do not believe that we should follow the 19th Century Rationalists' view that our language should be structured as though it were a Romance language. In other words, there's nowt wrong with a split infinitive...

Regards,

Steve.

Steve

I take your point. Of course well written and spoken language aids communication.

But my point was more along the lines that the iteration of the prescriptive grammar of English in the UK and the colonies is a tool to demonstrate superiority more often than it is a tool for improving communication.

Deane

Correct use of the language is an indication of a good education - unfortunately this is only available to pupils of the teachers educated in grammar schools. Succeeding generations of teachers were educated in a less disciplined environment, supposedly to protect the uninhibited creativety of the pupils.

It is not a class issue.

Derek

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