http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/pedant-within-me-bubbles-forth Just another bbPress community en-US Tue, 21 May 2013 12:24:57 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 q http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/search.php http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/pedant-within-me-bubbles-forth#post-170099 Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:34:07 +0000 jpa11 170099@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ <p>I am a pedant but I am also in love with language! I do not think that to be a pedant is to ignore the pleasures of language and its use. Of course language is always evolving, of course we should 'bubble and froth' when it is used brilliantly, but that does not mean that we should ignore standard English.</p> <p>However, I am accepting of poor English if used for a purpose. If 'bestest' is used to accentuate a piece of writing, or if I find a rogue apostrophe that has a reason for its existence, then I can still come over all bubbly and frothy. </p> http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/pedant-within-me-bubbles-forth#post-117533 Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:19:15 +0000 christopher0608 117533@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ I think there is a big difference between the irritating pedantry behind complaints against &quot;5 items or less&quot; signs and complaining about &quot;mens tees.&quot; There isn't another way to easily get across the idea without using 's. http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/pedant-within-me-bubbles-forth#post-111273 Sat, 21 Feb 2009 03:04:07 +0000 PamJH 111273@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ Nothing to forgive. Stuff like this drives me nuts, too. I'm trying to ease up, but it's been difficult. It's difficult to stifle the internal editor. http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/pedant-within-me-bubbles-forth#post-107777 Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:28:25 +0000 OliverBeatson 107777@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ Well, I have indeed listened to Stephen's Language podgram, and along with entertaining me greatly, it did allow me to sever from myself a large amount of inner pedant. However, I was rather shocked to see <em><a href="http://stephenfry.mysoti.com/mysoti/partner/products/style/CLO">on this very website</a></em>, within the virtual shop, several apostrophes missing. Now, I fully understand how many of you will accuse me of robbing language of its joy and splendour and meaning. Thus I assure you I delight in the language as much as I find its grammar and syntax fascinating and exciting. But now down to the business. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.<br /> <br /> 'Mens tees', 'Girls tees', 'Kids tees', and more, all of these things, while being semantically watertight, do make me wince. Perhaps they shouldn't, perhaps it's a problem with me, but I felt compelled to tell someone. I do not want to ridicule or demean anyone, nor to delight in any pseudo-academic pompous pedantic language-ruining spree. I just wanted to point it out. I do hope you'll forgive me.