Ah, delight in disorder. Love it.
Hal
On Aug 23, 2005, at 9:54 AM, Janet Jackson wrote:
> Love these linguistic discussions.
>
> Linguistic change is a fascinating process that has been going on
> forever.
> English grammar has, on the whole, simplified considerably during its
> history, and the process continues. It seems to me that change was
> slowed
> down greatly by the invention of the printing press, but now in
> the "Information Age" it has speeded up again.
>
> What we say seems to depend on where we are and also on
> how old we are. I'm, I guess, English-Australian, and 39 (relatively
> young, I think, for this list?) and can't imagine ever saying
> or writing "whilst", "amongst" or "amidst".
>
> "Toward" and "towards" aren't really words I use in speech,
> but in print... hmmm...
> Come toward me.
> He went toward her.
> She crawled towards the opening.
> I think I would prefer to write "toward" because it's simpler.
> That "s" just seems unnecessary. In prose anyway.
> In poetry, all rules suspended are!
>
> As for Jons note about its and it's. Im always hoping that we will
> drop apostrophes completely from abbreviations and ownership
> words. I really cant see why we need them and getting rid of them
> would mean you couldnt get it wrong. It looks a bit weird at first
> but wed soon get used to it. (Never mind that "wed" - just think of
> "read"
> and "read".)
>
> But I'm not going to start a campaign! It might happen as part
> of the natural process of language change - but perhap's it's more
> likely that the opposite will happen and we will start using
> apostrophe's
> for plural's and other word's ending in "s", as so many
> semi-literate writer's already do. Aagh!
>
> What a lovely mess our language is.
>
> Janet
> ------------------------------------------------------
> Janet Jackson <[log in to unmask]>
> Poems at Proximity:
> http://www.arach.net.au/~huxtable/janet/proximity.html
> ------------------------------------------------------
>
>
Hal Actual Product May Vary from Photos
Halvard Johnson
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