Thoughts from an Intellect

Words. Communication. 

     What images do you think of when you read the above words? Letters and paragraphs on a page, moving lips, open mouths, or a computer screen? It probably depends on where and how you use language the most in your day-to-day life. Generally, I think, it would be natural to think of “Words” as on a page and “Communication” as between two or more people in everyday life. Anyway, these two words are so interconnected to one another that they are nearly interchangeable, but not quite so.

Image from barnraisersllc.net

     Words can be very powerful. Even the smallest of comments could crush someone else entirely. Sometimes, we just don’t think about what we say before we say it, and suffer consequences for our neglect, whether they be great or small. Others don’t have much of a “filter” at all and everything they think just comes tumbling right out their mouths, regardless of what may come from their words. Sometimes I wonder how those people get by. 

     I recently found that I was offending people with my honest-to-goodness words, which of course, I never intended. It turns out that some people are deeply offended by the truth and do their best to outrun it. But I was greatly offended because these people did not come to me with their problem with me, but told everybody else, it seems, about it; I only found out through the proverbial grapevine. “Through the grapevine” is not a good way to find things out that involve you.

     Through words, we communicate how we feel, how we think, what we think, et cetera, each of us to a different degree of everything, of course. There is no problem with my communication skills and there wasn’t when I was offending others. Where the problem lies is with their communication skills. Yes, they may have been uncomfortable with bringing their problem with my truthiness to me, but that’s how things get easily solved. When things like this happen – when people talk about their problems with others with everyone but the people they have problems with – it creates a kind of drama. With me, honesty really is the best policy and straightforwardness is appreciated and respected. Drama is highly frowned upon.

Image from dianamarinova.com

     How does a lack of communication affect the already open lines of communication? The lines become damaged or get tossed out completely. I choose not to communicate with people who refuse to communicate back to me. Sure, I may still talk to them, but it’s only on a must-need basis. How am I supposed to know if the words I’m using are okay unless they come and talk to me? I’m not a mind-reader. I am usually a pretty decent judge of character, but I can’t read the minds of those who are incommunicable. 

    You, reader, are probably wondering why I’m even posting something like this on my language blog. It’s partly because I haven’t posted in a while, partly to relieve my stress of this situation and share my thoughts, and basically to communicate how difficult communication can be when others don’t communicate back. Language barriers are tough, but with gestures, a few frustrations, and the dire will to communicate, language barriers can be overcome. Lack of communication altogether makes things impossible.

What's New

What About You, My Reader

   This post is going to be a little different. I'm asking for your opinions on modern speaking and sharing my own thoughts. I'd love to know a little about the folks who are reading my blog here, so feel free to share your feelings on the below topics. Language is my thing, it's what I'm interested in. Even if how you speak and where you're from (generally, of course) are the only things I know about you, I'd feel I have connected with you, learned a little about my readers. Knowing a little about you, my readers, will help me to expand what I currently know about language and how it's spoken around the world. So you see, there's no need to be shy. I only want to learn about the words that come from your mouth. 

   Now, on to the topics of this bi-monthly post. 

"I am 23 years new."

 

   Nothing much, it seems, is new. Especially us. Once we're born, we're at least a second old. We're always old. Some people have taken a stand against this and chosen to say, when referring to someone's age, they are so-many years new. I've heard it from people I know and from a person or two on the radio and tv. It's a way to make themselves or others feel younger, newer, or less old.  

   What do you personally think about this? Let me know in the comments below whether simply knowing of this innovation in the English language has encouraged you to change your views on age, or change the way you refer to age. Do you know why people do this, and do you know many that do? Why do you think they've made this innovative choice to change our old ways?

Littler 

Resisting Change

Incorrect or Forward Thinking?

   Sometimes I can't help but think Who made up this rule? Mostly, we all simply accept the rules we've been taught and abide by them, even going as far as to belittle those who don't do the same. Like I've mentioned before, I was one who belittled to make the written world a better place and for quite a while, but now I'm one who only does it to show how things need to change.

   Below is a picture I took while I was out and at an establishment, which I will not mention the name of due to me not asking them for permission to do so. There are a few things that look wrong. We've been taught that the technical errors in the photo are wrong. Take a look and see how many you can spot. 

   I found two on this bulletin board. I want us to consider for a moment if these are really wrong. I'll keep away from "Birthday's" because I can't think of a good reason why an apostrophe would be inserted there, but "Anniversarys" is technically not wrong. We add an s to most things to make them plural, and sometimes es. Instead of changing the y to an i and adding es, why not simply add an s? It's simpler, people will have no problem understanding it, and if you think about it, it looks more natural. The sound of the y doesn't change from anniversary to anniversaries, so why should it change physically to an i when becoming plural?

   This is just one example. There are many words in which the y changes to an i in the plural or when changing the tense. Dry, fly, try, but not tray, play, tie. Not birthdays and mondays, but category and carry. There are patterns and I do recognize them, don't get me wrong, but this is one of those rules that doesn't make much sense. 

   What do you think - is this a rule that can go, or one that we need to keep? What are some grammar or spelling rules that you can't find much sense in?

Current Change

The English Writing System

     Language changes every day, whether we as speakers realize it or not. New words are made up and old and new words disappear; new phrases emerge and others grow old and fall from use. As a native speaker of whichever language you speak, you have a right to push this change forward or to halt it, though completely stopping or slowing this change is impossible. I believe that as long as other native speakers of your language understand, you have a right to speak however you wish. When it comes to writing, however, there have to be conscious rules that everyone can understand and judge, and that is why English teachers choose to be "grammar Nazis." These rules are similar to the unconscious rules of speech, though some people disagree and others support wholeheartedly these restrictions on natural expression, though the natural rules of speech are undisputed among the populace.

Image from http://sarolta.wordpress.com/category/call/blogs-wikis/page/2/ .

    Language has interested me since high school. In preparation for college, the high school I attended recommended that students take two years of a foreign language, so I took French and found my niche. I took three years of French courses in high school and went to college and earned my bachelor's in French studies. While in college, I also studied German and English in which I have minors, and Spanish and Japanese. It is in college that I determined where I stand on modern issues concerning language, writing, and language change.

Constant Change

 The English Writing System

     Language changes every day, whether we as speakers realize it or not. New words are made up and old and new words disappear; new phrases emerge and others grow old and fall from use. As a native speaker of whichever language you speak, you have a right to push this change forward or to halt it, though completely stopping or slowing this change is impossible. I believe that as long as other native speakers of your language understand, you have a right to speak however you wish. When it comes to writing, however, there have to be conscious rules that everyone can understand and judge, and that is why English teachers choose to be "grammar Nazis." These rules are similar to the unconscious rules of speech, though some people disagree and others support wholeheartedly these restrictions on natural expression, though the natural rules of speech are undisputed among the populace.

Image from http://sarolta.wordpress.com/category/call/blogs-wikis/page/2/ .

    Language has interested me since high school. In preparation for college, the high school I attended recommended that students take two years of a foreign language, so I took French and found my niche. I took three years of French courses in high school and went to college and earned my bachelor's in French studies. While in college, I also studied German and English in which I have minors, and Spanish and Japanese. It is in college that I determined where I stand on modern issues concerning language, writing, and language change.