Anonymous
Post 01/20/2020 13:47     Subject: The English language is getting dumber
Candidly, I’m more irked by the fact most Americans can’t spell and therefore end up using the British spelling for words like grey instead of gray and cancelled instead of canceled.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2020 13:34     Subject: Re:The English language is getting dumber
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yes, American English is absolutely getting “dumber” every day. Common usage puts the misused word in the dictionary and then we’re done. We’re losing key distinctions by accepting misuse.


Or languages always evolve. Ask a linguist.
Yes, pp is absolutely correct! Language changes and maybe some of us are nostalgic for the old ways of saying something but that doesn't mean that the new ways are dumber. They're just different. I don't like change either but I rarely assume that means the change is dumb.


As a scholar specializing in dead languages, I assure you English is not losing 'key distinctions'. Language is used differently in different situations and contexts. When precision is required, there is no shortage of words that can communicate, with accuracy, what the writer intends.

I will offer, over the millennia, there have been gazillions of dollars made and lost on 'language precision and imprecision'. What we are experiencing is nothing new.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2020 13:28     Subject: Re:The English language is getting dumber
"The ask"
"screens"/"scrolling" as incorrect terms to whine about what others do on their phones
Dh/dd/ds etc etc
All are examples of the dumbing down and all need to go away.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2020 12:47     Subject: The English language is getting dumber
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Keyboarding simply refers to a computer keyboard vs typewriter keys. It's a different skill, although similar. Learning touch typing is the focus of both.

Lots of nouns are now also used as verbs:

Parenting
Googling
Emailing
texting
Ubering

It's actually called "verbing" when it happens.


We called them gerunds. Don't get me started on dangling participles.


Yep! You can remember the difference between a gerund and a gerundive by reciting something my Latin teacher used to say: A gerundIVE is an adjectIVE. A gerund is a noun.

Even now, 15 years later, I remember that.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2020 12:09     Subject: The English language is getting dumber
Anonymous wrote:I think the change makes more sense. To me, Typing is a verb. It represented hitting the keys on the typewriter. Keyboarding is a noun and is more inclusive of eboverything kesrned today - turning on the computer, using the mouse, opening the program, etc.

Not exactly parallel, but...... When you draw, you create a drawing. When you type on a keyboard, you have learned keyboarding. Tpwhen you workout, you completed training.


Typing can be a verb as in I "am typing", or a noun, a gerund, as in what I am doing right now is "typing". A keyboard is a noun as in the computer keyboard, but doesn't work as a verb. Typing is the action of striking a key, keyboarding doesn't conjure up any action in my mind. Mousing is totally different than striking keys so I don't know why that would be lumped in with keyboarding when the mouse is not even a part of the keyboard.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2020 12:05     Subject: The English language is getting dumber
I graduated high school in 1991 and it was keyboarding then—at least since the 80s because my jr high offered keyboarding classes. Where have you been for the last 35 years?
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2020 12:02     Subject: The English language is getting dumber
Anonymous wrote:Keyboarding simply refers to a computer keyboard vs typewriter keys. It's a different skill, although similar. Learning touch typing is the focus of both.

Lots of nouns are now also used as verbs:

Parenting
Googling
Emailing
texting
Ubering

It's actually called "verbing" when it happens.


We called them gerunds. Don't get me started on dangling participles.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2020 11:55     Subject: The English language is getting dumber
Anonymous wrote:How old are you, OP? I took keyboarding in the ninth grade back in '96.


Let's just say I was totally done with schooling in 1997. We had computers in the 80's but we still called it typing. We had typewriters but I learned to type on a computer with a program called Typing Tutor.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2020 11:25     Subject: Re:The English language is getting dumber
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yes, American English is absolutely getting “dumber” every day. Common usage puts the misused word in the dictionary and then we’re done. We’re losing key distinctions by accepting misuse.


Or languages always evolve. Ask a linguist.
Yes, pp is absolutely correct! Language changes and maybe some of us are nostalgic for the old ways of saying something but that doesn't mean that the new ways are dumber. They're just different. I don't like change either but I rarely assume that means the change is dumb.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2020 09:51     Subject: The English language is getting dumber
Yes it s. I keep hearing the word "finna." It makes me cringe.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2020 09:40     Subject: Re:The English language is getting dumber
Anonymous wrote:Yes, American English is absolutely getting “dumber” every day. Common usage puts the misused word in the dictionary and then we’re done. We’re losing key distinctions by accepting misuse.


At least some of us still know the difference between lose and loose! Thanks PP.
Anonymous
Post 01/20/2020 07:46     Subject: Re:The English language is getting dumber
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yes, American English is absolutely getting “dumber” every day. Common usage puts the misused word in the dictionary and then we’re done. We’re losing key distinctions by accepting misuse.


Or languages always evolve. Ask a linguist.


Of course languages evolve to include more words and terms, not they laziness and misuse. Take nauseous/nauseated. We lost nauseated and use nauseous for both something that will make you feel like vomiting and feeling like vomiting. Why? Laziness. And don’t get me started on turning every noun into a verb!

We’re losing language precision.


Read the article posted above. It addresses past claims of laziness and imprecision in terms of using the word hopefully as we use it today. “Hopefully, it won’t rain.” And the article points out that no one would make that claim about hopefully now.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2020 18:58     Subject: Re:The English language is getting dumber
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yes, American English is absolutely getting “dumber” every day. Common usage puts the misused word in the dictionary and then we’re done. We’re losing key distinctions by accepting misuse.


Or languages always evolve. Ask a linguist.


Of course languages evolve to include more words and terms, not they laziness and misuse. Take nauseous/nauseated. We lost nauseated and use nauseous for both something that will make you feel like vomiting and feeling like vomiting. Why? Laziness. And don’t get me started on turning every noun into a verb!

We’re losing language precision.


Maybe worry about your own typing and clunky grammar first.



Well you just admitted that you had no counter-argument and the PP was correct. Way to embarrass yourself! Next time just don’t respond.


No I didn't. I have no interest in arguing with an internet pedant, but I couldn't resist the urge to point out PP's apparent inability to operate a keyboard. Particularly in the context of a thread about the word "keyboarding."


No, Dude. You resorted to “grammar policing” when you had no other defense. Give it up and stop embarrassing yourself more.


I see that you don't understand. PP was claiming that other people are lazy for using certain words, but didn't bother to proofread her own post. She demonstrates the very laziness that she's bitching about. It wasn't intended to be a hard-hitting response to her argument; it was intended to be funny.

But while we're on the subject of language precision, I'm not embarrassing myself, because I don't feel any sense of shame or self-consciousness (at least not as a result of this interaction). The word "embarrass" doesn't mean "doing something that makes others think you're dumb."



Give it up, PP.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2020 18:47     Subject: The English language is getting dumber
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This makes perfect sense because the skill is most useful on a keyboard rather than a typewriter. It was typing when people used typewriters, now it’s keyboarding for keyboards. Language changes, it’s not a sign of being dumbed down, but exemplifies how language adapts to be most useful to the people communicating with it.



Do you know that the keyboard of a typewriter is identical to the keyboard on a computer? And where the keys are located on a typewriter has always been called a keyboard.


NP. Where is the Ctrl key on a typewriter? How about Alt or function keys? How do you copy and paste on a typewriter? Undo?


The letter placement is the exact same. All the keys of a typewriter are on a computer keyboard but not all the keys of a keyboard are on a typewriter.

And the PP is correct - way back in the 1950’s touch-typing book my grandmother gave me, the instructions were to “put your hands on the keyboard as illustrated”.



Not quite. On my first typewriter I didn't have different keys for 1/l and 0/O. So there were a few minor differences outside of multiple shift keys. I still say O when I read 0 but otherwise don't confuse them.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2020 18:29     Subject: Re:The English language is getting dumber
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yes, American English is absolutely getting “dumber” every day. Common usage puts the misused word in the dictionary and then we’re done. We’re losing key distinctions by accepting misuse.


Or languages always evolve. Ask a linguist.


Of course languages evolve to include more words and terms, not they laziness and misuse. Take nauseous/nauseated. We lost nauseated and use nauseous for both something that will make you feel like vomiting and feeling like vomiting. Why? Laziness. And don’t get me started on turning every noun into a verb!

We’re losing language precision.


Maybe worry about your own typing and clunky grammar first.



Well you just admitted that you had no counter-argument and the PP was correct. Way to embarrass yourself! Next time just don’t respond.


No I didn't. I have no interest in arguing with an internet pedant, but I couldn't resist the urge to point out PP's apparent inability to operate a keyboard. Particularly in the context of a thread about the word "keyboarding."


No, Dude. You resorted to “grammar policing” when you had no other defense. Give it up and stop embarrassing yourself more.


I see that you don't understand. PP was claiming that other people are lazy for using certain words, but didn't bother to proofread her own post. She demonstrates the very laziness that she's bitching about. It wasn't intended to be a hard-hitting response to her argument; it was intended to be funny.

But while we're on the subject of language precision, I'm not embarrassing myself, because I don't feel any sense of shame or self-consciousness (at least not as a result of this interaction). The word "embarrass" doesn't mean "doing something that makes others think you're dumb."