Greetings Readers and Friends- It’s fight night!
grammar police vs. shameless botchers of the English language
old guard vs. cutting edge
queen’s english vs. newspeak
it’s getting ugly people- we’re pitting one part of speech against another…
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| note the holiday greenery… |
Verbs vs. Nouns? What on earth does this mean?
Well, I’ll tell you. Last night I found myself telling someone, “I had a good time too. I’ll Snapfish you the pictures when I have a chance!”
Wait, who can pick the “irregular” verb out of that sentence? Bonus points if you didn’t gag at that pun… So, I frequently use nouns as verbs. I think we all are guilty of this to some degree. (“I have to google _____” anyone??) The question is- when does it become an abuse of the language to the point of obnoxiousness? I find that I use this a lot of times out of sheer laziness and wanting to abridge my speech and still be understood as much as possible. At work I might throw out “I’ll meet with you as soon as I session note my last kiddo.” At home I might refer to “emailing” or “phoning” someone (ah, the ET phone home title makes sense now, right??) Teens might talk about how they “text” their friends, and we all increasingly “message” someone, whether that be an instant message, a facebook message, or other. And speaking of the good book (facebook, that is), to “facebook” someone has surely become a verb, but does it really specify anything? Of course it doesn’t! To “facebook” someone could mean to “friend” them (yet another noun/verb), to view their profile, to “message” them, to post on their wall, etc. So this one doesn’t even cut to the chase, it just is a lazy substitute.
I sometimes ask man-go-round to “gas up” the car. Or I currently would reply to his question, “hold on, I have to “blog” something quick.” I could go on and on and on. Frequently, these verbs in noun’s clothing are tech-speak. They are timesavers. They start as slang, and sometimes become real words (I believe google is accepted as a verb? Webster? any thoughts?)
What do we think of this? Is this a bastardization of real language? Or the way of the future? I certainly don’t think I”ll be stopping anytime soon… I”m not even sure I could if I tried.
What do you think?
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| Charlie Brown christmas tree is up- stay tuned for another tree perhaps? |
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