Author Topic: Grammar that makes you cringe (Read 856385 times)

jsabine · « **Reply #5900 on:** 03 December, 2020, 10:34:40 am »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 03 December, 2020, 10:19:05 am

Quote from: T42 on 03 December, 2020, 10:13:52 am
he might avoid all that by ~~vaccinating~~ vaccinationalizing.

FTFY

IRTA vacci-nationalizing rather than vaccination-alizing and thought that at least there's a place for the NHS ...

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #5901 on:** 03 December, 2020, 10:41:58 am »

Quote from: jsabine on 03 December, 2020, 10:34:40 am

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 03 December, 2020, 10:19:05 am
Quote from: T42 on 03 December, 2020, 10:13:52 am
he might avoid all that by ~~vaccinating~~ vaccinationalizing.

FTFY

IRTA vacci-nationalizing rather than vaccination-alizing and thought that at least there's a place for the NHS ...

Vacci-nationalizing: appointing a state cow.

T42 · « **Reply #5902 on:** 03 December, 2020, 10:42:08 am »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 03 December, 2020, 10:19:05 am

Quote from: T42 on 03 December, 2020, 10:13:52 am
Quote from: drossall on 02 December, 2020, 09:54:11 pm
"Taxonomy" carries an implication of the structure being composed of meaningful words. Classification systems can be )alpha-numerical or otherwise devoid of inherent meanings. I started working on taxonomies and classification systems as a young information scientist, but find them still important now in Web sites.

However, I'm not convinced that "taxonomise" is itself a meaningful word. I'm not sure how you could convert something into a taxonomy if it were not one in the first place. Unless of course the speaker were confusing the items that were being classified with the taxonomy structure itself, and suggesting that the former were being "taxonomised". But that's rather the same point as about "hospitalisation" which, logically, does not mean "being taken to hospital", but "being converted into a hospital."

In a wee while hospitalize will also mean go to hospital, as the passive is gradually ironed out of the language. "Where's Fred?" "Oh, he hospitalized with the Rona". A bit after that he'll be crematorializing. Of course, he might avoid all that by ~~vaccinating~~ ~~vaccinationalizing~~ vaccinationalizating.

FTFY

FTFY

Nuncio · « **Reply #5903 on:** 03 December, 2020, 11:27:56 am »

I think I'm an anti-vaccinationalizatingor. Grammatically speaking.

drossall · « **Reply #5904 on:** 03 December, 2020, 07:11:55 pm »

Quote from: T42 on 03 December, 2020, 10:13:52 am

In a wee while hospitalize will also mean go to hospital, as the passive is gradually ironed out of the language.

It's not about the active and passive voice; it's about the subject and object of verbs, in particular nouns constructed from verbs. If I normalise, then I am taking something else and making it fit the norm. The something is normalised, because it's the object of the verb. I can use a passive construction, but the roles of actor and target of the action are not changed. The same is true with standardising, and so on.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #5905 on:** 08 December, 2020, 01:24:44 pm »

Quote

Mount Everest was thought to be 8,848,86 metres before the new measurement.

Mixed Anglo-Euro punctuation in a caption from the Gurniad.

T42 · « **Reply #5906 on:** 08 December, 2020, 01:31:10 pm »

Quote from: Cudzoziemiec on 08 December, 2020, 01:24:44 pm

Quote
Mount Everest was thought to be 8,848,86 metres before the new measurement.
Mixed Anglo-Euro punctuation in a caption from the Gurniad.

That bunch. They were busy wrecking havoc this morning, can't remember where.

hubner · « **Reply #5907 on:** 09 December, 2020, 01:23:23 pm »

Quote

According to the report, the fire started on October 20 and burned uncontrolled for three days, effectively destroying the entire factory, which products various audio chip components used by ‘most Japanese camera makers.’

T42 · « **Reply #5908 on:** 09 December, 2020, 03:32:42 pm »

Quote from: road-runner on 08 December, 2020, 03:16:52 pm

Quote from: T42 on 08 December, 2020, 01:31:10 pm
They were busy wrecking havoc this morning ...

Not just havoc but wrecking the havoc must be really wreaking havoc! I hope they were not all sweaty and reeking after their wrecking.

Google Ngrams is interesting on the wrought/wreaked/wrecked theme.

If you filter successively by British English then American you can see where US media imports began to dominate British English.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #5909 on:** 09 December, 2020, 06:16:42 pm »

Always been a “wrought”. “Wreaked” sets my teeth on edge.

meddyg · « **Reply #5910 on:** 11 December, 2020, 08:57:32 pm »

Radio advert urging (unimaginative) listeners to

"Gift your relatives scratch cards !" *

'Gift' isn't the imperative form of the verb , now is it ?

I think I saw a Christmas shelf piles with chocolate labelled 'Gifting'
Fraid so.

* once you've checked they are over 18,
aware of the addiciton risk and 'to stop when the fun stops.'

ian · « **Reply #5911 on:** 11 December, 2020, 09:06:57 pm »

Gifting has already been done, and you're as wrong as everyone else in this thread, so you don't get a prize. Next!

Paul · « **Reply #5912 on:** 11 December, 2020, 11:24:16 pm »

Quote from: ian on 11 December, 2020, 09:06:57 pm

Gifting has already been done, and you're as wrong as everyone else in this thread, so you don't get a prize.

Much less a gift.

Perhaps someone can prize meddyg something, hmm?

Just because it's been done, doesn't make it fewer horrible.

T42 · « **Reply #5913 on:** 12 December, 2020, 09:20:39 am »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 09 December, 2020, 06:16:42 pm

Always been a “wrought”. “Wreaked” sets my teeth on edge.

Ditto. I do like the thought of wreaking some iron, though.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #5914 on:** 12 December, 2020, 06:38:33 pm »

DHL Track Your Parcel web site says mine is "at sortation facility"

Is sortation even a word ?

Paul · « **Reply #5915 on:** 12 December, 2020, 06:43:10 pm »

No, it's when 'or' crashes into 'station'.

Kim · « **Reply #5916 on:** 12 December, 2020, 06:56:32 pm »

Quote from: pcolbeck on 12 December, 2020, 06:38:33 pm

DHL Track Your Parcel webs site say mine is "at sortation facility"

Is sortation even a word ?

Sorting automation, innit.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #5917 on:** 12 December, 2020, 10:28:40 pm »

Quote from: Paul on 12 December, 2020, 06:43:10 pm

No, it's when 'or' crashes into 'station'.

Guffaw!

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #5918 on:** 12 December, 2020, 10:30:17 pm »

Quote

Tailfin increases versatility with modularly designed Cargo Cage

Tailfin, quite appropriate. Or rather, a headline in road.cc about Tailfin. You can't say it's actually grammatically wrong but it certainly is clumsy. Wouldn't "...modular Cargo Cage design" sound better?

rafletcher · « **Reply #5919 on:** 24 December, 2020, 09:48:29 am »

Bonus two-in-one from the BBC website today..

"Brexiteer Tories poised to pour over trade deal"

Closely followed by..

"When the detail of the deal comes out - hopefully later today - there will be many across the UK and EU pawing over the content."

T42 · « **Reply #5920 on:** 24 December, 2020, 02:17:52 pm »

Insane meaning rather remarkable.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #5921 on:** 31 December, 2020, 05:27:19 pm »

"We share information on a need-to-know basis." Okay.
"You need-to-know that I am a committed staff member." Ouch! No!

citoyen · « **Reply #5922 on:** 09 January, 2021, 11:11:04 pm »

Quote from: Cudzoziemiec on 31 December, 2020, 05:27:19 pm

"We share information on a need-to-know basis." Okay.
"You need-to-know that I am a committed staff member." Ouch! No!

I like the idea of need-to-know as a compound verb. Sounds quite French.

citoyen · « **Reply #5923 on:** 11 January, 2021, 05:18:51 pm »

Headline on the Guardian today:
"Police arrest man who carried Pelosi lectern and horned Capitol intruder"

A classic example of what the scholars at Language Log call a crash blossom. (Is 'horned' a verb or an adjective here?)

Although it's not nearly as amusing as this one:
https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=44683

Jasmine · « **Reply #5924 on:** 11 January, 2021, 05:29:48 pm »

Bleugh. In addition to the interpretation you have suggested, using 'horned' as a verb, I initially read that sentence as the arrested man had been carrying both the lectern and the man with the horns.

My contribution today isn't really grammar; it's just using the wrong word, but I thought it might be appreciated here. An advert for a virtual running event invites participants to 'select 8 concurrent days' and run a particular distance on each of them. I think that's a much harder challenge than they intended.