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@Obsolesce said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@tonyshowoff said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@Obsolesce said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
Another reason English lacks behind other languages.
I don't think that's a good demonstration of how English "lacks behind" other languages, considering even most other Germanic languages alone the reflexive pronoun(s) tend to be the same word no matter what making certain sentences very ambiguous. I think one of English's neatest things is the possessive pseudo-case of 's, which works a bit easier than genitive case in many languages because you can chain them, but is a hell of a lot more clear than a reverse list of "de", which at least in the case of Indo-European languages is the opposite direction of how speech tends to run.
Plus also the -ing ending is one of the best aspects that almost every other Indo-European language lacks or has to achieve in a complex manner which itself is also potentially vague. One of the problems is that -ing is also the ending for gerunds and some other things.
English's biggest problems are:
- The spelling system is one of the worst in the entire world, certainly worst in the western world, even beyond French. Funnily a lot of people who speak only English will say "but things are spelled the way they sound." No. At least French has a consistent way to "decode" (read) sounds and know what they are even if they can be hard to "encode" (write). /u/ may be written u, ou, et al but it still is essentially always pronounced /u/. English is broken both with encoding and decoding, though it's rough to write out all the reasons why.
- The dropping of singular familiar "thou" leaving only "you" and there's several historical reasons for this, but it's a pain in the ass anyway. Which ironic is that new plurals like "y'all" have been created but they make you sound like a hick or like you're pretending to be endearing and you assume everyone else doesn't see through it. The exception of course is if you speak AAVE (ebonics) and it's apparent, or you speak some version of English from the South East.
Languages don't tend to lack or gain a whole lot of features, they make up with them with syntax, grammatical forms, stress, all sorts of things. Sort of like how people tend to view AAVE as a simplified or dumbed down version of General American where in fact it may not have some of the same grammatical properties GA has but it gains its own which in turn are sometimes ambiguous to whitey.
In Swedish for example, there are specific pronouns for exactly these instances.
For example:
She is drinking her coffee.(her own coffee)
Hon dricker sitt kaffe.(another woman's coffee)
Hon dricker hennes kaffe.Yes the only reflexive pronoun like this you get in English is -self, herself, himself, myself, etc. Though Swedish with sitt (sina, sin) is interesting because it at least follows gender, where as even in some other Germanic languages like, well, German, they don't at all, but people make up for it by using the definite article of the same grammatical gender. It's a language hack I guess.
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@DustinB3403 said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@tonyshowoff said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@tonyshowoff said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@tonyshowoff said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@tonyshowoff said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
The point is unregulated languages are vastly worse than regulated ones. English is an example of it when it comes to both grammar and spelling, where you can even have idiotic teachers spit out grammar books in the 50s claiming "no split infinitives" and some people say "of course, that's totally true!"
But English DOES have an academy, and it caused many of those problems because it was the source of many.
No it does not.
It does, the US founded one in the 1700s.
Are you talking about American Academy of Language and Belles Lettres? That hasn't been operational since the late 1700s.
No, Merriam Webster, as an example, produces current works from it.
That's a private company though.
It is now, but it's touted as being the authority on what is and isn't an actual word of the English language.
Eventually twerking may become a proper word in the English language if it makes it into that book.
The only official academy which has ever existed is the American Academy of Language and Belles Lettres which hasn't existed since the early 19th century. Any other claims are basically self-appointed, non-government sponsored entities which is something anyone can say. Merriam-Webster never held the position, they just think because they took over after Noah was dead that they have the same authority he had, and he really didn't have much of any because in his lifetime his dictionary wasn't very popular.
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@tonyshowoff said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@DustinB3403 said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@tonyshowoff said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@tonyshowoff said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@tonyshowoff said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@tonyshowoff said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
The point is unregulated languages are vastly worse than regulated ones. English is an example of it when it comes to both grammar and spelling, where you can even have idiotic teachers spit out grammar books in the 50s claiming "no split infinitives" and some people say "of course, that's totally true!"
But English DOES have an academy, and it caused many of those problems because it was the source of many.
No it does not.
It does, the US founded one in the 1700s.
Are you talking about American Academy of Language and Belles Lettres? That hasn't been operational since the late 1700s.
No, Merriam Webster, as an example, produces current works from it.
That's a private company though.
It is now, but it's touted as being the authority on what is and isn't an actual word of the English language.
Eventually twerking may become a proper word in the English language if it makes it into that book.
The only official academy which has ever existed is the American Academy of Language and Belles Lettres which hasn't existed since the early 19th century. Any other claims are basically self-appointed, non-government sponsored entities which is something anyone can say. Merriam-Webster never held the position, they just think because they took over after Noah was dead that they have the same authority he had, and he really didn't have much of any because in his lifetime his dictionary wasn't very popular.
That's how America works, "unofficial", but still official, businesses. Same with medical. It's how the government keeps it looking like capitalism when actually being a highly planned economy.
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@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@tonyshowoff said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@DustinB3403 said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@tonyshowoff said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@tonyshowoff said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@tonyshowoff said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@tonyshowoff said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
The point is unregulated languages are vastly worse than regulated ones. English is an example of it when it comes to both grammar and spelling, where you can even have idiotic teachers spit out grammar books in the 50s claiming "no split infinitives" and some people say "of course, that's totally true!"
But English DOES have an academy, and it caused many of those problems because it was the source of many.
No it does not.
It does, the US founded one in the 1700s.
Are you talking about American Academy of Language and Belles Lettres? That hasn't been operational since the late 1700s.
No, Merriam Webster, as an example, produces current works from it.
That's a private company though.
It is now, but it's touted as being the authority on what is and isn't an actual word of the English language.
Eventually twerking may become a proper word in the English language if it makes it into that book.
The only official academy which has ever existed is the American Academy of Language and Belles Lettres which hasn't existed since the early 19th century. Any other claims are basically self-appointed, non-government sponsored entities which is something anyone can say. Merriam-Webster never held the position, they just think because they took over after Noah was dead that they have the same authority he had, and he really didn't have much of any because in his lifetime his dictionary wasn't very popular.
That's how America works, "unofficial", but still official, businesses. Same with medical. It's how the government keeps it looking like capitalism when actually being a highly planned economy.
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@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
In all reality, as far as SMs go, G+ wasn't nearly as bad as FB or MySpace.
God is MySpace still around?
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@DustinB3403 said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
In all reality, as far as SMs go, G+ wasn't nearly as bad as FB or MySpace.
God is MySpace still around?
last i heard jt had bought it to make it a more musical based forum. I think.
Also don't pretend like Tom wasn't your friend either.
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@LilAng said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@DustinB3403 said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
In all reality, as far as SMs go, G+ wasn't nearly as bad as FB or MySpace.
God is MySpace still around?
last i heard jt had bought it to make it a more musical based forum. I think.
Also don't pretend like Tom wasn't your friend either.
Justin Timberlake purchased myspace?
Is it going to include this:
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@LilAng said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@DustinB3403 said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
In all reality, as far as SMs go, G+ wasn't nearly as bad as FB or MySpace.
God is MySpace still around?
last i heard jt had bought it to make it a more musical based forum. I think.
Also don't pretend like Tom wasn't your friend either.
The only people I've seen in recent years that even use MySpace (almost typed MySQL which I did all the time back then) are people in crappy bands that also visit the profiles of other crappy bands and no lay people actually use it. I never used MySpace at all myself.
Actually that's not true, I signed up once to send a message to one of my long lost sisters to get her email address after my brother had found her on there. I didn't use it beyond that.
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@tonyshowoff said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@LilAng said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@DustinB3403 said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
@scottalanmiller said in Random Thread - Anything Goes:
In all reality, as far as SMs go, G+ wasn't nearly as bad as FB or MySpace.
God is MySpace still around?
last i heard jt had bought it to make it a more musical based forum. I think.
Also don't pretend like Tom wasn't your friend either.
The only people I've seen
in recent yearsthat even use MySpace (almost typed MySQL which I did all the time back then) are people in crappy bands that also visit the profiles of other crappy bands and no lay people actually use it. I never used MySpace at all myself.FTFY
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