The Argus: destroying the English language, one heading at a time

[The Albion Roar]

The English language has evidently not got as far as Weymouth.

 

[Waynflete]

Its no surprise that younger journalists are making grammatical errors, as our language changes and handwritten words are fast becoming a thing of the past. Its only really the older generation now still writing letters. The whole construction of grammar is by-passing the younger generations, as they short-cut their way through life, with abbreviated texts, twitters and banal facebooking. No disrespect but some of the posts on here are awful, shoddy, embarrassing efforts at the English language. If you haven't got time to construct a couple of sentences, that read clearly and make sense, then don't bother.
The written word and the spoken word are under threat. Its common to find people in all walks of life, who can't pronounce the letter ' r ' They weren't born with this problem. They just weren't corrected by their parents, when they were young. Kids will look for short cuts. Its not just the letter ' r '. Its now fashionable not to pronounce ' th ' anymore but replace it with the letter ' d ' and throw in a sort of mid-Atlantic drawl and you end up with...." So dare I was de udder day, wondring wot te do bout dis car I've got, when der next door nayber said his was up for sale "....etc etc
Our speech is being hijacked by lazy people who can't be bothered to use their tongues and pronounce words properly. Kids are talking in a kind of semi-language, part Jamaican patois, part sub-continental immigrant ( ' innit ' ) and part Vicky Pollard. They never handwrite anything. They don't construct sentences and paragraphs. Before long there will be a generational language gap, where the older generations will not have a clue what youngsters are on about. It will be like a secret society, where kids talking normally can't be understood by their parents and will get away with murder ( not literally ) which will widen the divide. We will be two races within our island. One will be a diminishing older generation, still speaking the Queen's English ,who will all be locked away, institutionalised, imprisoned by the younger generations, to stop them tainting this ' new speak ' They will be regarded with disdain and condemned to their final days of near solitude, reading the last great works of English literature, that they have smuggled into their ' rest homes ' Still writing the occasional letter with their frail hands, until eventually they are all gone, like the last Great War veterans and are just a thing of the past.
" I must go down to the sea again, the lonely sea and sky....."

An interesting perspective that would hold more weight if the punctuation of 'it's' was not incorrect in your first two sentences. [emoji846]

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Proof read by children, the teachers who taught them, or maybe nobody at all. Certainly nobody from my generation.

I think I agree. I briefly did teacher training in the 1970s and the attitude was to let children express themselves in writing first, and deal with the grammar and punctuation later - fine, except that they never seemed to get round to it. So too many kids never had errors pointed out, and some became teachers with no grasp of the fundamentals.

I personally think that texting, Twitter and Facebook are actually positive in that people are now writing more than they did 20 years ago, and I don't agree that America is to blame. No self-respecting local paper in the USA would ever come out with the errors that the Argus does.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

The English language has evidently not got as far as Weymouth.

With my experience of trying to get to Bournemouth by train on Saturday I'm not surprised.

 

[dazzer6666]

Some of the written work produced by supposedly very bright people at my place of work drives me nuts. Grocer's apostrophes, mixing up 'their' and 'there' (seen this once already today from a Director level individual) and the worst one of all, 'should of'......

 

[The Albion Roar]

Its no surprise that younger journalists are making grammatical errors, as our language changes and handwritten words are fast becoming a thing of the past. Its only really the older generation now still writing letters. The whole construction of grammar is by-passing the younger generations, as they short-cut their way through life, with abbreviated texts, twitters and banal facebooking. No disrespect but some of the posts on here are awful, shoddy, embarrassing efforts at the English language. If you haven't got time to construct a couple of sentences, that read clearly and make sense, then don't bother.
The written word and the spoken word are under threat. Its common to find people in all walks of life, who can't pronounce the letter ' r ' They weren't born with this problem. They just weren't corrected by their parents, when they were young. Kids will look for short cuts. Its not just the letter ' r '. Its now fashionable not to pronounce ' th ' anymore but replace it with the letter ' d ' and throw in a sort of mid-Atlantic drawl and you end up with...." So dare I was de udder day, wondring wot te do bout dis car I've got, when der next door nayber said his was up for sale "....etc etc
Our speech is being hijacked by lazy people who can't be bothered to use their tongues and pronounce words properly. Kids are talking in a kind of semi-language, part Jamaican patois, part sub-continental immigrant ( ' innit ' ) and part Vicky Pollard. They never handwrite anything. They don't construct sentences and paragraphs. Before long there will be a generational language gap, where the older generations will not have a clue what youngsters are on about. It will be like a secret society, where kids talking normally can't be understood by their parents and will get away with murder ( not literally ) which will widen the divide. We will be two races within our island. One will be a diminishing older generation, still speaking the Queen's English ,who will all be locked away, institutionalised, imprisoned by the younger generations, to stop them tainting this ' new speak ' They will be regarded with disdain and condemned to their final days of near solitude, reading the last great works of English literature, that they have smuggled into their ' rest homes ' Still writing the occasional letter with their frail hands, until eventually they are all gone, like the last Great War veterans and are just a thing of the past.
" I must go down to the sea again, the lonely sea and sky....."

I think that's a bit melodramatic. You appear to be tarring an entire generation with the same brush. I'm sure the English language as we know it, while an ever changing beast, is safe for the next few generations. The vast majority of people use English pretty much in the correct manner - certainly in terms of spoken English.

There are two things which do irk me about spoken English though - verbal tics - 'basically', 'literally' etc. (though I am guilty of my own tics on air - I am trying to eradicate it), and hyperbole, mostly in order to embellish an otherwise dull conversation - 'that was the best thing... EV-AH' etc.

 

[drew]

Language evolves, sometimes for the good and sometimes not. We don't talk to each other as if we had just jumped from the pages of a Shakespearean play and probably very dissimilar to even 150 years ago. Some are not amused by the changes and some ain't bovver'd! The important thing is that you communicate effectively what it is that you are trying to convey.

 

[Deleted User X18H]

It has been a while since the Argus has featured on these pages for it's wanton disregard of grammar rules and usage. So, I give you:-

View attachment 69905

Was Timmy the guest sub-editor for today's edition, I wonder?

Timmy this Timmy that . Why give the attention seeking fool what he craves most.

The Argus is an institution where ever it's printed . Leave them alone .

 

[soistes]

 

[knocky1]

Language evolves, sometimes for the good and sometimes not. We don't talk to each other as if we had just jumped from the pages of a Shakespearean play and probably very dissimilar to even 150 years ago. Some are not amused by the changes and some ain't bovver'd! The important thing is that you communicate effectively what it is that you are trying to convey.

you wot?

 

[knocky1]

Its no surprise that younger journalists are making grammatical errors, as our language changes and handwritten words are fast becoming a thing of the past. Its only really the older generation now still writing letters. The whole construction of grammar is by-passing the younger generations, as they short-cut their way through life, with abbreviated texts, twitters and banal facebooking. No disrespect but some of the posts on here are awful, shoddy, embarrassing efforts at the English language. If you haven't got time to construct a couple of sentences, that read clearly and make sense, then don't bother.
The written word and the spoken word are under threat. Its common to find people in all walks of life, who can't pronounce the letter ' r ' They weren't born with this problem. They just weren't corrected by their parents, when they were young. Kids will look for short cuts. Its not just the letter ' r '. Its now fashionable not to pronounce ' th ' anymore but replace it with the letter ' d ' and throw in a sort of mid-Atlantic drawl and you end up with...." So dare I was de udder day, wondring wot te do bout dis car I've got, when der next door nayber said his was up for sale "....etc etc
Our speech is being hijacked by lazy people who can't be bothered to use their tongues and pronounce words properly. Kids are talking in a kind of semi-language, part Jamaican patois, part sub-continental immigrant ( ' innit ' ) and part Vicky Pollard. They never handwrite anything. They don't construct sentences and paragraphs. Before long there will be a generational language gap, where the older generations will not have a clue what youngsters are on about. It will be like a secret society, where kids talking normally can't be understood by their parents and will get away with murder ( not literally ) which will widen the divide. We will be two races within our island. One will be a diminishing older generation, still speaking the Queen's English ,who will all be locked away, institutionalised, imprisoned by the younger generations, to stop them tainting this ' new speak ' They will be regarded with disdain and condemned to their final days of near solitude, reading the last great works of English literature, that they have smuggled into their ' rest homes ' Still writing the occasional letter with their frail hands, until eventually they are all gone, like the last Great War veterans and are just a thing of the past.
" I must go down to the sea again, the lonely sea and sky....."

#wreckt

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Its no surprise that younger journalists are making grammatical errors, as our language changes and handwritten words are fast becoming a thing of the past. Its only really the older generation now still writing letters. The whole construction of grammar is by-passing the younger generations, as they short-cut their way through life, with abbreviated texts, twitters and banal facebooking. No disrespect but some of the posts on here are awful, shoddy, embarrassing efforts at the English language. If you haven't got time to construct a couple of sentences, that read clearly and make sense, then don't bother.
The written word and the spoken word are under threat. Its common to find people in all walks of life, who can't pronounce the letter ' r ' They weren't born with this problem. They just weren't corrected by their parents, when they were young. Kids will look for short cuts. Its not just the letter ' r '. Its now fashionable not to pronounce ' th ' anymore but replace it with the letter ' d ' and throw in a sort of mid-Atlantic drawl and you end up with...." So dare I was de udder day, wondring wot te do bout dis car I've got, when der next door nayber said his was up for sale "....etc etc
Our speech is being hijacked by lazy people who can't be bothered to use their tongues and pronounce words properly. Kids are talking in a kind of semi-language, part Jamaican patois, part sub-continental immigrant ( ' innit ' ) and part Vicky Pollard. They never handwrite anything. They don't construct sentences and paragraphs. Before long there will be a generational language gap, where the older generations will not have a clue what youngsters are on about. It will be like a secret society, where kids talking normally can't be understood by their parents and will get away with murder ( not literally ) which will widen the divide. We will be two races within our island. One will be a diminishing older generation, still speaking the Queen's English ,who will all be locked away, institutionalised, imprisoned by the younger generations, to stop them tainting this ' new speak ' They will be regarded with disdain and condemned to their final days of near solitude, reading the last great works of English literature, that they have smuggled into their ' rest homes ' Still writing the occasional letter with their frail hands, until eventually they are all gone, like the last Great War veterans and are just a thing of the past.
" I must go down to the sea again, the lonely sea and sky....."

Ah...

 

[Guinness Boy]

Timmy this Timmy that . Why give the attention seeking fool what he craves most.

The Argus is an institution where ever it's printed . Leave them alone .

*wherever

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Some of the written work produced by supposedly very bright people at my place of work drives me nuts. Grocer's apostrophes, mixing up 'their' and 'there' (seen this once already today from a Director level individual) and the worst one of all, 'should of'......

The daughter of a friend of mine, a linguistics graduate, got a temporary job working in a large office in Hove. She couldn't bear to see some of the illiterate drivel sent out by her employers in letters and emails, so offered to correct them before they went out. The gist of the reply was: 'Shut up and make the tea.'

You'd think the recipients of the misspelled, badly-punctuated nonsense would judge the company accordingly, but I suppose they didn't even notice ...

 

[Pevenseagull]

*wherever

The second sentence should end with a question mark.

 

[Guinness Boy]

The second sentence should end with a question mark.

As far as Timmy's concerned I consider it an instruction.

 

[Megazone]

I wish I could find out what the word 'pedantic' meant?

 

[John Bumlick]

Some of the written work produced by supposedly very bright people at my place of work drives me nuts. Grocer's apostrophes, mixing up 'their' and 'there' (seen this once already today from a Director level individual) and the worst one of all, 'should of'......

But complaining about it on nsc doesn't help. You should of pointed out there mistake's.

 

[Triggaaar]

I'm having a seizure.

 

[WhingForPresident]

Its no surprise that younger journalists are making grammatical errors, as our language changes and handwritten words are fast becoming a thing of the past. Its only really the older generation now still writing letters. The whole construction of grammar is by-passing the younger generations, as they short-cut their way through life, with abbreviated texts, twitters and banal facebooking. No disrespect but some of the posts on here are awful, shoddy, embarrassing efforts at the English language. If you haven't got time to construct a couple of sentences, that read clearly and make sense, then don't bother.
The written word and the spoken word are under threat. Its common to find people in all walks of life, who can't pronounce the letter ' r ' They weren't born with this problem. They just weren't corrected by their parents, when they were young. Kids will look for short cuts. Its not just the letter ' r '. Its now fashionable not to pronounce ' th ' anymore but replace it with the letter ' d ' and throw in a sort of mid-Atlantic drawl and you end up with...." So dare I was de udder day, wondring wot te do bout dis car I've got, when der next door nayber said his was up for sale "....etc etc
Our speech is being hijacked by lazy people who can't be bothered to use their tongues and pronounce words properly. Kids are talking in a kind of semi-language, part Jamaican patois, part sub-continental immigrant ( ' innit ' ) and part Vicky Pollard. They never handwrite anything. They don't construct sentences and paragraphs. Before long there will be a generational language gap, where the older generations will not have a clue what youngsters are on about. It will be like a secret society, where kids talking normally can't be understood by their parents and will get away with murder ( not literally ) which will widen the divide. We will be two races within our island. One will be a diminishing older generation, still speaking the Queen's English ,who will all be locked away, institutionalised, imprisoned by the younger generations, to stop them tainting this ' new speak ' They will be regarded with disdain and condemned to their final days of near solitude, reading the last great works of English literature, that they have smuggled into their ' rest homes ' Still writing the occasional letter with their frail hands, until eventually they are all gone, like the last Great War veterans and are just a thing of the past.
" I must go down to the sea again, the lonely sea and sky....."