To -ize or not to -ize is the question

[GreyGeek]

... No worries, I have that same issue - a sign of an active brain (over-active?). I've become used to proof-reading everything - several times - before sending.

But first you have to remember to proof read. Then there is the problem of seeing one spelling but thinking another. I'm constantly using It's when I mean Its, Or, their instead of there.

[woodsmoke]

Many students think that I'm from Britain because I tell them that I will "mark" their papers quickly and post the "marks" in Blackboard that day instead of "within the college's standard of 72 hours".

WoodhaslawaysspokenwithaBritishaccentbecauseheobse ssedonBorisKarloffBelaLugosiandBasilRathbonefilmsw hileinknickerssmoke

[GreyGeek]

That's quite an obsession, Woodsmoke!

[woodsmoke]

lol

--- 1950's, a little kid, a black and white t.v on a swivel stand with a seashell and coral "tv light" atop it...and late night (Friday night)....SHOCK THEATER!!

woodsmoke

[Fester Bestertester]

That's why I said "become used to". It's taken a while ...and the eternal apostrophe catastrophe!

.. and they're (!) members of that rare breed: words written with a final "e" that is pronounced!

It seems Chinese / Asian folk have difficulty with this, though perhaps less so now in our more-connected world. My Mum, as aforementioned, grew up with mobile merchants prevalent. Among these were the "barrow-boy" Chinese, and one such (or pair, or two pair?) having the 'cry' "Cabbagee, lettucee, pea, leek!" and his follower crying "Me too, Me too!". Another cry was "Lady sinklet, lady knicker!" and the "Me too" follower. Possibly the same fellow with different goods to hawk,

English, besides being so difficult to learn, has this amazing adaptability, enabling it to absorb through common usage from other tongues / cultures. This also opens it up to all sorts of hi-jinks an humo(u)r.

In late Primary School (around age 9-10) my route to school passed a stand of pine trees that shaded the road for most of the day, giving a patch of 'black ice' on the road right in the path of my cycle-way. I took a tumble on this that broke one of my front teeth at its root. It died but hasn't rotted, being still intact even now. The upshot of this was Dentistry - and our dentist subscribed to the "Saturday Evening Post", which had some delightful pidgin-German snippets. One of these was Daffynitions, such as the Jet pilot's takeoff instructions ("rounderworldenwhizzerstartenplan") and landing instructions ("rounderworldenwhizzerquittenplan"), and a memorable "Rhymers Mein Grossfader Made", e.g.:

Das Camel ben wearen acrossen der backen
Ein humper resemblen ein grosser knapsacken
und vass ist insiden ist nicht ben outspillen
Becausen das hump ist mit Camel upfillen!"

There was Der Turtle I remember, and others I've forgotten, all with wonderful cartoons.

Enjoy, and if you can dig some up I'd appreciate the reminder!

[Fester Bestertester]

True for US I suppose, but here in NZ it was pre-TV. The biggest deal was Radio - National Programme, with dramas like Portia Faces Life, dramedies like Dad and Dave, The Archers, comedies like The Clitheroe Kid, Round The Horne, with My Word and My Music being just as much Educational. Aussie or Brit mostly ...

[Qqmike]

Fun with words, grammar, constructions?

I haven't looked at this material for about a year but will post it for you guys to figure out. :-)

Any sentence consisting solely of the word "buffalo" repeated any number of times is grammatically correct.

The following is a grammatically correct sentence:

"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo."

One reading could be this:

bison who are intimidated or bullied by bison are themselves intimidating or bullying bison (at least in the city of Buffalo implicitly, Buffalo, NY);

or this:

Buffalo buffalo (buffalo from Buffalo NY) [that] Buffalo buffalo buffalo (that the buffalo from Buffalo NY bully) buffalo Buffalo buffalo (are bullying buffalo from Buffalo NY)

For explanations of this (and a diagram) and other examples of such grammatical construction (which may be correct but nonsensical, such as "James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher"), see

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffal...uffalo_buffalo

More fun:

The sentence
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorl...leep_furiously

And this:

James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher

... is an English sentence used to demonstrate lexical ambiguity and the necessity of punctuation, which serves as a substitute for the intonation, stress, and pauses found in speech.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_...on_the_teacher

[Fester Bestertester]

Well, that's my week occupied!

..and the Aussie definition of a Bison? A thing you wash yer fyce in!

[Fester Bestertester]

Just call me a Luddite (Ludite?). or maybe Collins was - my 1957 dictionary - ises, my wife's 2005 (Collins again) -izes.

My opinion? the double-letter neutralises the vowel's modification of the consonant. Lud may well have been the name of the activist, but the i of -ite will modify the pronunciation of the u to an 'oo' unless the d is doubled. Yank suffers the same - they have traveling, why not runing? An English person will initially pronounce traveling as 'trave-ling', and reject runing as 'rune-ing', a non-word.

[GreyGeek]

I've resisted, honestly I really tried to resist ... but I can't do it. Here is some more fantastic British humor:

[Fester Bestertester]

Yep, Monty Python. And it's British, so it's humour

[GreyGeek]

I stand correctedized!

[Fester Bestertester]

Man can't we munch, munge and mangle language! Correctified? correctifised? correctifized? All comprehensible, too!

In process of trying to wrest our eldest grandson from the alligator-jaws of our socio-legislative system, I asked the bureaucrat posing as Social Worker to give me a clear, comprehensible, concise reason for his incarceration. She gave me back curt and crypitc: Policy! No attempt at explanation - I doubt she even understands that policy, just enforces it (with a Court Order, no less!).
Now 'aged out' of the system, over the past 3 years he has made spectacular strides in recuperating from the damage done by them in their 5 years of custody (while in *our* care and with *our* guidance), to the point that he now has a good chance of employment.

[Qqmike]

Dropping a couple more heavies for pondering:

* What are words? Thinking of a favorite one-liner among American head guys (shrinks, therapists, etc.): "The map is not the territory." Similarly, a word (e.g., noun) is not the thing. What do we mean when we use a word? what do we think we mean? how do words affect our personal sense of "reality"? do we really know what reality "is"? And so on, like that.

Not necessarily connected to the above, and not necessarily not connected (though that qualifier is redundant to the first phrase),

* An open issue of debate among philosophers: Connection between language and consciousness? Of course, this begs the issue, as we need a working definition of consciousness; and that is an open can of worms, or not ...

[woodsmoke]

This thread is so ""Monty Pythonish"(sic) and also about fifty other northern European referenceish it is just hilarious.

Sorry, I've been in Tenerife.

woodsmoke