Grammar and Language
I'm rather particular about grammar and language, sometimes in pretty unconventional ways.
This page is a stub, created on 2020-04-21 (last updated on 2021-01-24). Its contents are notes on the issues and angles I want to address about this topic.
Here are a few of my fixations and particularities (in no particular order) that I intend to explain in greater detail:
- apostrophes
- "The Bureau of Grammatical Integrity" and the anecdote with Sara Triplett and her parents when we "vandalized" the "WASHER AND DRYER HOOK UPS'" sign
- the subjunctive
- serial comma
- punctuation and quotation marks
- punctuation for abbreviations (eg, "eg", "ie", "etc", "Mr", "Dr", "PhD", "Sr")
- nested parentheses
- verbs as nouns (eg, "That's a big ask.")
- nouns as verbs (eg, "Let's solution that.")
- adjectives as nouns (eg, "deliverable")
- noun versus verb compound forms; eg,
- "setup" versus "set up"
- "login" versus "log in"
- "checkin" versus "check-in"
- "oncall" versus "on-call"
- "inline" versus "in-line"
- hyphenates that should be their own words (eg, "usecase", "enduser")
- contranyms (eg, "cleave", "sanction", "practically")
- "begs the question" versus "implies the question"
- the "[blah] because [noun phrase]" construction
- "a-whole-nother"
- "PIN number", "ATM machine", "API interface", etc
- "compose" versus "comprise"
- "further" versus "farther"
- "less" versus "fewer"
- "envy" versus "jealousy"
- "effective" versus "efficient"
- see also post on Manager Tools forum
- "assume" and "assumption" versus "conclude" and "conclusion"
- "need" versus "want"
- the effect of regarding these as being quantitatively on the same spectrum: "strong-enough desire" == "metaphysical requirement", an uncalibrated sense of entitlement
- "facts" versus "opinions"
- "objective" versus "subjective"
- "universal" versus "personal"
- "situational" versus "context-free"
- "abstract" versus "concrete"
- "opinion-based" versus "fact-based"
- "controversial" versus "uncontroversial"
- "selfish" versus "short-sighted whim pursuit"
- "judge" versus "condemn"
- "compromise"
- "[collection]" versus "[collection] [item]":
- "blog post" versus "blog"
- "podcast" versus "podcast episode"
- "wiki" versus "wiki page"
- "JIRA" versus "JIRA issue"
- "FAQ" versus "FAQ entry"
- "meme" versus ???
- "irregardless", other non-words, and the (d)evolution of language (maybe a separate post in its own right)
- datetime stamps, 24-hour time
- "gods"
- "theater" versus "theatre"
- pronunciation of plural words, such as
- "basis" versus "base"
- "bias" ("bias-ehz" versus "bias-eez")
- Picard-isms: schedule, issue, appreciate
- "none are" versus "none is"; "any are" versus "any is"
- singular "they"
- singular "data"
- shorthand for "item of data"?
- connection to "the Borg", "a Borg"
- contrast/connection to "medium"/"mediums" and "media"
- "formulas" versus "formulae"
- "terrariums" versus "terraria", "aquarium" versus "aquaria"
Fun games:
- alterninyms (eg, "Sleep, Shower, and Sundry")
- pluralization (eg, mattropodes)
Other topics:
- Style guides be damned! (Kind of.)
- descriptive versus prescriptive versus objective
- evolution versus devolution
- Newspeak
- liberal
- progressive
- social justice
- redistribution (of wealth)
- privilege
- labour party
- proletariat