{"id":5088,"date":"2003-11-04T08:12:37","date_gmt":"2003-11-04T15:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=5088"},"modified":"2003-11-04T08:12:37","modified_gmt":"2003-11-04T15:12:37","slug":"words_and_gramm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/11\/04\/words_and_gramm.html","title":{"rendered":"Words (and grammar) mean things"},"content":{"rendered":"

Try your luck with Richard Roth’s Hundred Most Common Errors<\/a> in (American) English usage.<\/p>\n

I got a 71\/100, which should tell you something. (You do have to keep your own score.)<\/p>\n

I learned a few things I hadn’t known before (8, 20, 32, 38, 39, 85). But the biggest problem with something like this is that language is an evolving beast — some of the “errors” stem from “proper” vs. “colloquial” English (3, 34, 36, 42, 56, 67, 83, 98 for example), and that’s always dangerous. When does something become “proper”? When enough people use it that it becomes accepted by the “experts” — which means that the “error” is repeated enough to be a “truth.”<\/p>\n

Of course, some rules, even many rules, are necessary. Some of the distinctions and errors inhibit communication, introduce confusion, and the like. But even as much as I’m a lover of grammar, it’s something you can easily carry too far.<\/p>\n

Still, interesting stuff.<\/p>\n

(via GoaF<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Try your luck with Richard Roth’s Hundred Most Common Errors in (American) English usage. I got a 71\/100, which should tell you something. (You do have to keep your own…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-and-language"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30863,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/25\/20-common-grammar-mistakes-some-of-which-arent.html","url_meta":{"origin":5088,"position":0},"title":"20 Common Grammar Mistakes (some of which aren't)","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 25-Oct-12 9:06am","format":false,"excerpt":"Some of these are grammar mistakes (or clarifications). Some are arguable misuse of words (though word use is always changing). \u00a0Some are personal preferences and affections.So here are three meta-rules about grammar and grammar mistakes:1. The purpose of grammar (and spelling, etc.) is to communicate clearly. If the communication is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27557,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/04\/25\/beware-the-grammar-police.html","url_meta":{"origin":5088,"position":1},"title":"Beware the Grammar Police!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 25-Apr-12 7:18am","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, I'll admit to being a pedant over a lot of these sort of things -- though it's usually in conjunction with business writing (where grammar errors actually convey unwanted impressions, rightly or wrongly). The essay is worth reading through to the end, as it actually gets into prescriptive vs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40481,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/08\/grammar-police-and-hiring-decisions.html","url_meta":{"origin":5088,"position":2},"title":"Grammar Police and Hiring Decisions","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 8-Jan-14 7:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't go so far as to give people grammar tests, but I will say that proper grammar and spelling on resumes and cover letters plays something of a gatekeeper role in the hiring process for me. \u00a0After all, if you can't avoid or check-spot-correct such problems on such documents\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38599,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/31\/words-with-enemies.html","url_meta":{"origin":5088,"position":3},"title":"Words with Enemies","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 31-Aug-13 1:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So I'm a rules-abiding kind of guy. And I'm a big believer in the richness of the language and in the power of proper grammar and all that.But for some reason, of late, I've been finding myself defending the idea that languages are dynamic, and that spelling, grammar, meaning, exist\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49864,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/17\/on-policing-grammar.html","url_meta":{"origin":5088,"position":4},"title":"On Policing Grammar","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 17-Mar-15 4:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Some good points to remember when (or before) going all Grammar Police on someone.Humanity has a constant challenge in conflating aesthetics with morality; it's true in religion, it's true in the law, and it's often true with grammar. Originally shared by +Karen Conlin: I don't know how I missed this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51846,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/24\/the-grammar-police-are-nothing-new.html","url_meta":{"origin":5088,"position":5},"title":"The Grammar Police are nothing new","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 24-Jul-15 6:15pm","format":false,"excerpt":"John Witherspoon was President of Princeton in the late 18th Century, educator of, then later Revolutionary colleague with, the Founding Fathers. He was also a stickler for grammar, as this article notes, documenting the \"errors in grammar, improprieties, and vulgarisms\" that Americans were adopting in their distance from the Mother\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}