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Problems with the English language


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It is just such a widespread language, originating in very different languages and being changed over and over with different cultures coming and going from Britain over the centuries. It has then spread to other places, evolving separately in them.

 

All languages have their problems and success', but I wouldn't say any are better than others. It all comes down to being able to understand each other.

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It is just such a widespread language, originating in very different languages and being changed over and over with different cultures coming and going from Britain over the centuries. It has then spread to other places, evolving separately in them.

 

All languages have their problems and success', but I wouldn't say any are better than others. It all comes down to being able to understand each other.

 

If you had two languages exactly the same except that one used gender articles and one did not, the one that does not use them is a better language. It is easier, simpler, and quicker in that respect, and is therefore better.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hmmph, given the amount of rants I've had in the unofficial tip.it friends chat, this thread will be perfect.

 

Isn't it funny how accents can change the way you view someone?

 

[hide=May contain expletives. Play at your own risk]

[/hide]

 

Or the way language can be manipulated with euphemisms?

 

 

 

It's a funny world. The expressions we use, or lack thereof, has huge implications on the way we behave and the way we think.

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Le bam

I knew about the "it warps how we view objects", to me a fork will always have a manly voice.

 

"what a [bleep]ty bridge"

 

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Along with accent, the vocabulary that people use as part of their dialects is interesting, but can certainly get confusing. For instance, as part of a module in uni, we are looking at varieties of English, and in one lecture focused on the 'Black Country' (A region of England) dialect. We looked at examples of typical phrases, I could understand what they meant though wouldn't use them myself, but I was sitting next to a girl from France, so a non-native speaker of English, and she just couldn't understand what some of them were at all, or why they were changed from the 'normal'.

 

Some basic examples:

 

'We day buy it' - We didn't buy it.

'You bay going out in this, bist?' - You aren't going out in this, are you?

'I puck the cheapest' - I picked the cheapest.

'He can't drive, but her can' - He can't drive, but she can.

 

As you can see it's just one or two words that are different, but I can see how it could get confusing, and there will be all sorts of varities and dialect-specific vocabulary throughout the world.

 

I should point out that such vocabulary seems to be far less popular in modern times, and is mainly the older generations who would use such terms (In my example anyway).

 

So yeah I just find the little differences in language based on dialects interesting :-P

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  • 2 weeks later...

What are your opinions on swearing? Can it ever be a good thing (to swear)?

A swear word is really no different to any other. It's just the social taboo that surrounds it that designates it as 'offensive', 'vulgar' or whatever.


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What are your opinions on swearing? Can it ever be a good thing (to swear)?

A swear word is really no different to any other. It's just the social taboo that surrounds it that designates it as 'offensive', 'vulgar' or whatever.

 

Should it be? Surely it's the context that makes things offensive, not the words themselves.

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What are your opinions on swearing? Can it ever be a good thing (to swear)?

A swear word is really no different to any other. It's just the social taboo that surrounds it that designates it as 'offensive', 'vulgar' or whatever.

 

Should it be? Surely it's the context that makes things offensive, not the words themselves.

 

It's more irksome when the person using the word to insult someone and doesn't even know the meaning of the word itself.

 

Personally, I think swear words are losing their strength and meaning the more they are used over time much like rubber is from being stretched frequently.

 

Of course, normal words aren't immune to the abuse either.

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What are your opinions on swearing? Can it ever be a good thing (to swear)?

A swear word is really no different to any other. It's just the social taboo that surrounds it that designates it as 'offensive', 'vulgar' or whatever.

 

Should it be? Surely it's the context that makes things offensive, not the words themselves.

 

Please expand, I don't follow.


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Swearing is purely about the context. Sometimes when people swear it allows me to be more understanding and feel greater empathy for their situation. But typically speaking, it's implemented for the precise incentive of emitting a hardcore don't-give-a-shit vibe to your audience, which you apparently do give a really big ironic shit about.

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About swearing, there's also the idea that when you swear after hurting yourself/dropping something or similar, it's not a conscious decision but something hard-wired in our brain. This happens with any word, eg some people shout 'crap' while others may loudly say 'oh fiddle' or whatever.

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The effectiveness of swearing is inversely proportional to how often you use it. I know lots of people who will insert the 'f-word' into most sentences, even when it's not called for, and eventually I block them out. All you do is sound desperate to be heard without having anything to back it up, and I don't really respect that.

 

I swear in real life only marginally more than I do here, so when I do swear in front of people who know me, they know that I really what to emphasise what I'm saying. Holding back the urge to say those words more often is worth it every time.

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  • 4 weeks later...

You should watch a live video of Children of Bodom - When he's talking to the crowd, the lead singer literally says "[bleep]ing" every 4 words or so >.>.

 

 

I can't say I like swearing very much. Sure this might be prejudice a bit, but I find that those throwing around swear words are usually very immature, quick to insult other people and generally just annoying. It's not the swear words themselves, it's the context in which they're used* - but those who don't intend to use them in a derogatory sense usually don't use them at all or only very sparingly. Nothing wrong with saying [bleep] when you die, but it really shouldn't get over the top. I have to say I'm also quite happy for the filters within Runescape and also the tip.it forums - I know I'm free to occasionally use swear words when I want to emphasize something without having to worry about someone deeming it offensive.

 

* I know a lot of examples here...I'm a rank in the penguin chats in w60, and we are relatively strict on language, simply because keeping it clean makes the time that much more enjoyable in the chats. Anyways, at times I had discussion over several dozens of pms why a "What the F" wasn't appropriate(He said something along the lines of "Why the F are so few people calling" or something like that). The guy kept saying that since he only said "f", it was not a swear and since it was not a swear word, I had no reason to tell him to tone down his language :rolleyes:

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I don't swear as much as I used to although it doesn't bother me at all as it seems to be all around about here so much that most of the words have lost any kind of offensiveness they might've had in the past.

A small example (with swearing):

[hide]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znYJXIw2UKw

"Every c**t is hopefully going to get along with each other"[/hide]

 

That's fairly common, f*****g gets used a lot as well. Casual swearing. Obviously everyone isn't running around swearing every second word but if you're out at a bar or somewhere and you're not used to hearing it, I'd imagine it'd be quite noticable.

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What are your opinions on swearing? Can it ever be a good thing (to swear)?

A swear word is really no different to any other. It's just the social taboo that surrounds it that designates it as 'offensive', 'vulgar' or whatever.

 

Should it be? Surely it's the context that makes things offensive, not the words themselves.

 

Experiments have shown that when people put thier hand into an Iced water bucket people that were allowed to swear about the pain generally lasted longer than people who wernt allowed to say anything.

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Experiments have shown that when people put thier hand into an Iced water bucket people that were allowed to swear about the pain generally lasted longer than people who wernt allowed to say anything.

 

They showed that on a BBC program called 'Planet Word' a few weeks ago I think, it was also suggested that swearing can be good as it allows us to express anger or frustration vocally rather than physically/violently.

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The fact that English is androcentric is a problem.

 

For instance, try to think of how many derogatory words you can think of for men, and then women. It's highly unlikely that you know more derogatory words for men than women.

 

Political correctness is attempting to fix this issue (for instance, 'humankind' rather than 'mankind', Police officer rather than policeman) but it can't fix the entire problem.

 

It even extends into racism - there are less derogatory words for white people than black people (please note that I am not encouraging sexism or racism, merely pointing out the fact that it is a problem with the English language that needs to be remedied).

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The fact that English is androcentric is a problem.

 

For instance, try to think of how many derogatory words you can think of for men, and then women. It's highly unlikely that you know more derogatory words for men than women.

 

Political correctness is attempting to fix this issue (for instance, 'humankind' rather than 'mankind', Police officer rather than policeman) but it can't fix the entire problem.

 

It even extends into racism - there are less derogatory words for white people than black people (please note that I am not encouraging sexism or racism, merely pointing out the fact that it is a problem with the English language that needs to be remedied).

 

Tbh, that's something I find incredibly stupid. Sure there are more derogatory words for women or black people, but what does it matter? It's something that is in indicator for history and society, but it's in no way the problem itself. Should we think of swearwords for men just so have the same amount of swearwords for both genders?

 

The same thing for mankind - it's not derogatory to women today, only if you let it be. It's something that is that way because of history, so what does it matter today?

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I guess now I know why so few English speaking people learn French, they think the English language is hard.

 

If this post offends anyone, just pm me.

 

 

I've been meaning to learn French, along with German for a long time now. My spanish used to be pretty great, I need to get back into it.

 

 

And English is hard because it doesn't necessarily follow grammatical rules that it infers it follows.

 

My spanish teacher in high school had a story of how when she was in a class in Puerto Rico learning English, they were teaching the vowel sounds. The instructor actually made a mistake I guess, and stated a "ee" word made an "i" sound. So when she came to America I guess she pronounced everything like that. Then she saw a sale at Linens and Things, for bed sheets. So she went, and but she couldn't find any, so she went to the counter and asked where they kept the shits. She said I know you have red shits, yellow shits, and the shits with the high thread count..... Where are the shits?

 

 

She was asked to leave the store.

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The fact that English is androcentric is a problem.

 

For instance, try to think of how many derogatory words you can think of for men, and then women. It's highly unlikely that you know more derogatory words for men than women.

 

Political correctness is attempting to fix this issue (for instance, 'humankind' rather than 'mankind', Police officer rather than policeman) but it can't fix the entire problem.

 

It even extends into racism - there are less derogatory words for white people than black people (please note that I am not encouraging sexism or racism, merely pointing out the fact that it is a problem with the English language that needs to be remedied).

That's not something that's built into the language per se; I'd say that's because of centuries of sexism and racism coming up with more words to insult minorities.

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Tbh, that's something I find incredibly stupid. Sure there are more derogatory words for women or black people, but what does it matter? It's something that is in indicator for history and society, but it's in no way the problem itself. Should we think of swearwords for men just so have the same amount of swearwords for both genders?

 

The same thing for mankind - it's not derogatory to women today, only if you let it be. It's something that is that way because of history, so what does it matter today?

 

Until people stop clinging onto the past - something which happened to their ancestors and not themselves, then it will matter.

 

It doesn't matter to me - I, like most people, don't go around shouting sexist and racist terminology at everyone I see.

 

I agree that it shouldn't matter today, but the fact is that people cling onto the past like an excuse.

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