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Demonstone's and Flaubert's English Grammar for Demonlanders 101

Neil Crompton
Neil Crompton
in Melbourne Demons

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  On 27/07/2022 at 03:40, old55 said:

I could care less about spelling and grammar.

 

  On 03/08/2022 at 02:14, Demonstone said:

I cringe at "I could care less", which indicates that the speaker has at least some level of care.

Surely "I couldn't care less" (I have no care) is what they mean.

 

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      On 03/08/2022 at 05:31, Spirit of '87 said:

    It should more traditionally be “I”, as you are effectively saying “my brother is taller than I am…” 

    i.e. “he is taller than I am”

    hence “he is taller than I…”

    but “me” seems to be the more commonly used these days. 

    https://onlinewritingtraining.com.au/than-i-versus-than-me/

    The link asks more questions than it answers. For example, who knew that "than" could be either a conjunction or a preposition?

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    A lot of learnings in this thread. 

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      On 03/08/2022 at 05:36, In Harmes Way said:

    It doesn't mean a prisoner going back to jail, which is what I'm sure they'd be thinking.

    Either that or they'd think it was a Greek bloke coming down the stairs.

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    Let me vent my spleen a little more.

    1.  "You're bias".   You can have bias, in which case you are biased.  It's a noun, not a verb.

    2.  "That's cringe".  It may make you cringe, in which case it's cringeworthy.

    3.  "Get off of".  An Americanism that just grates.

    4.  "Allot" means to distribute, to allocate.  If there is plenty of something, there's a lot of it.

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      On 03/08/2022 at 06:20, Demonstone said:

    Let me vent my spleen a little more.

    1.  "You're bias".   You can have bias, in which case you are biased.  It's a noun, not a verb.

    2.  "That's cringe".  It may make you cringe, in which case it's cringeworthy.

    3.  "Get off of".  An Americanism that just grates.

    4.  "Allot" means to distribute, to allocate.  If there is plenty of something, there's a lot of it.


    Awful, but could it be considered a malapropism rather than poor grammar? 

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      On 03/08/2022 at 06:20, Demonstone said:

    Let me vent my spleen a little more.

    3.  "Get off of".  An Americanism that just grates.

     

    You hypocrite! You and Mike coined that expression in the early ‘60’s. Remember this?:

    ”hey hey you you get off of my cloud…”

     

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    Take a close look at the Collingwood banner on Friday night. There should be atleast one spelling error.  Essendon would be another banner to look out for.

    Why dont the dees cheer squad do their banner in latin?

    That would P.. Off Collingwood supporters no end.

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      On 03/08/2022 at 06:28, Demonstone said:

    I wouldn't class that as a malapropism.

    Isn’t a malapropism a knowingly-incorrect usage of a word or term (as opposed to an ignorant one)? Or are you saying that there’s nothing “knowing” about it?

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    Malapropism is the use of an incorrect word in an amusingly inappropriate way and may be deliberate or accidental, but is more commonly the latter.  

     

     

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      On 03/08/2022 at 06:32, deebunked said:

    Take a close look at the Collingwood banner on Friday night. There should be atleast one spelling error.  Essendon would be another banner to look out for.

    Why dont the dees cheer squad do their banner in latin?

    That would P.. Off Collingwood supporters no end.

    *sigh* …would thou couldst, deebunked, would thou bloody couldst.
    Sorry, that’s Old English, not Latin. 

    I can’t speak for other teams’ banners but in our case you’ll likely never see a mistake. This is partly because we have an elevated platform, the view from which makes it easier to spot anything untoward. It’s also because we’re Melbourne supporters and therefore our I.Q. is not in single digits. Nor is our tooth count, for that matter. 
    😁

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      On 03/08/2022 at 06:54, Demonstone said:

    Malapropism is the use of an incorrect word in an amusingly inappropriate way and may be deliberate or accidental, but is more commonly the latter.  

     

     

    Not to be confused with mondegreens.

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      On 03/08/2022 at 07:03, Winners at last said:

    Not to be confused with mondegreens.

    Alex the seal?

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      On 03/08/2022 at 06:54, Demonstone said:

    Malapropism is the use of an incorrect word in an amusingly inappropriate way and may be deliberate or accidental, but is more commonly the latter.  

     

     

    I see.

    So what is the term for a word such as “woke”? Where a word is commonly-understood to be “incorrect”, but forges on regardless to become part of the lexicon?

    Is that just another malapropism? Seems like such a thing deserves it’s own term. 

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      On 03/08/2022 at 06:20, Demonstone said:

    2.  "That's cringe".  It may make you cringe, in which case it's cringeworthy.

    Channelling my pedantic grumpy old man persona, I'd also like to ask when exactly 'fail' began to be used as either a noun or adjective.

    For example:

    The heavy defeat that Melbourne dished out to Gold Coast displayed the flaws inherent in their rebuilding process. The whole thing totally reeks of fail.

    I always thought the proper lexical item in this case was 'failure'.

     

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      On 03/08/2022 at 07:13, Mel Bourne said:

    So what is the term for a word such as “woke”?

    To say it's a cliched, catch-all pejorative would be to risk straying into the muddy waters of politics.   

     

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      On 03/08/2022 at 08:26, Demonstone said:

    To say it's a cliched, catch-all pejorative would be to risk straying into the muddy waters of politics.   

     

    Ha! Fair point. Bad example! 

    Edited by Mel Bourne

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