Linguisting or Semantic Pet Peeves

[Cecilie1200]

^^^ When people say "cray cray" about someone, they are meaning that the person is crazy.

God bless you always!!!

Holly

And "selfie" refers to pictures taken of oneself, generally on a camera phone.

Although it IS pretty narcissistic.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

What is so difficult about the concept of twelve o'clock NOON? Everywhere I look I see people referring to "12 pm." Even on the Weather Channel!

"p.m." stands for "post meridiem," which, in latin means, "after mid-day (noon)" So saying "12 o'clock pm" is like saying "noon, after noon." For some reason, it drives me nuts.

"I could care less." Total nonsense, yet it is used all the time. To have any rational meaning whatsoever, one should say, "I couldn't care less." To say, "I could care less," is to say that you DO care, which is the OPPOSITE of what is intended.

"He got the shaft." This unfortunate expression refers to anal rape. Same for "He got screwed." Used all the time in casual conversation, but clearly it should be abolished from the current American lexicon.

"This is truly a QUALITY product!" Quality is a NOUN, not an adjective; it cannot properly be used to describe anything. To use it as an adjective is idiotic. The proper expression would be, "This is a high quality product." To say that it is a quality product is like saying, "Manute Bol was a very height basketball player."

Feel free to add your own.

My first thought of "he got the shaft" is it originated in the bow and arrow days. Someone gets shot by an arrow so deeply the shaft is inside them, "they got the shaft."

 

[Pogo]

Telephone robots using personal pronouns piss me off. A robot saying "sorry, I didn't get that" is not only claiming personhood with I; it's claiming to feel emotion. That's just wrong.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Telephone robots using personal pronouns piss me off. A robot saying "sorry, I didn't get that" is not only claiming personhood with I; it's claiming to feel emotion. That's just wrong.

Well, since the computer uses voice recognition technology, if it says, "I didn't get that", it very literally did not get what you said, in much the same way that a human might not understand what you said. And what else would the computer refer to itself as besides "I"? As for the apology, that's not really emotion so much as a grammatical convention to politely let you know that communication is not happening correctly. How often when you say, "Sorry" to someone are you ACTUALLY feeling sorry?

 

[Pogo]

Telephone robots using personal pronouns piss me off. A robot saying "sorry, I didn't get that" is not only claiming personhood with I; it's claiming to feel emotion. That's just wrong.

Well, since the computer uses voice recognition technology, if it says, "I didn't get that", it very literally did not get what you said, in much the same way that a human might not understand what you said. And what else would the computer refer to itself as besides "I"? As for the apology, that's not really emotion so much as a grammatical convention to politely let you know that communication is not happening correctly. How often when you say, "Sorry" to someone are you ACTUALLY feeling sorry?

"Politely" proves the point. A machine has no feelings, ergo no need for "polite". We use it between ourselves to soften speech so that it's understood it's not meant aggressively. Since a machine is not capable of emotion, it's not capable of aggression, so it has no meaning.

Methinks such a machine, particularly since it's our slave, should be programmed to use the third person neuter or better still, passive voice -- "your input was not recognized".

I just have problems with phony. Pretending machines have sentience is phony.

Then there are the menus that mindlessly say, "to continue in English, press one" -- and they just said that in English.

 

[featherlite]

^^^ When people say "cray cray" about someone, they are meaning that the person is crazy.

God bless you always!!!

Holly

And "selfie" refers to pictures taken of oneself, generally on a camera phone.

Although it IS pretty narcissistic.

Selfies are fun...especially when they are natural and spontaneous.
When someone takes 15 selfies in various duck mode faces...then its a narci. lol

 

[Cecilie1200]

Telephone robots using personal pronouns piss me off. A robot saying "sorry, I didn't get that" is not only claiming personhood with I; it's claiming to feel emotion. That's just wrong.

Well, since the computer uses voice recognition technology, if it says, "I didn't get that", it very literally did not get what you said, in much the same way that a human might not understand what you said. And what else would the computer refer to itself as besides "I"? As for the apology, that's not really emotion so much as a grammatical convention to politely let you know that communication is not happening correctly. How often when you say, "Sorry" to someone are you ACTUALLY feeling sorry?

"Politely" proves the point. A machine has no feelings, ergo no need for "polite". We use it between ourselves to soften speech so that it's understood it's not meant aggressively. Since a machine is not capable of emotion, it's not capable of aggression, so it has no meaning.

Methinks such a machine, particularly since it's our slave, should be programmed to use the third person neuter or better still, passive voice -- "your input was not recognized".

I just have problems with phony. Pretending machines have sentience is phony.

Then there are the menus that mindlessly say, "to continue in English, press one" -- and they just said that in English.

It's the company that's being polite, not the machine. And it's been found that customers don't like the more mechanical, "Your input was not recognized", so they phrase it in more conversational terms. I don't think anyone thinks or is pretending that the machine is sentient. It's no more phony than having a recording on your answering machine saying, "I'm sorry I missed your call". The answering machine isn't sorry about anything, no matter what it says. It's expressing the opinion of the human who owns and and programmed it.

Of course the menus say "press one" in English. It's directed at people who understand English. The next line says, "To continue in Spanish, press two" in Spanish . . . because it's directed at people who understand Spanish. What would be the point of addressing English speakers in another language?

 

[Cecilie1200]

^^^ When people say "cray cray" about someone, they are meaning that the person is crazy.

God bless you always!!!

Holly

And "selfie" refers to pictures taken of oneself, generally on a camera phone.

Although it IS pretty narcissistic.

Selfies are fun...especially when they are natural and spontaneous.
When someone takes 15 selfies in various duck mode faces...then its a narci. lol

True. I like seeing pictures of my friends actually doing something. Multiple pictures of their bathroom mirror only interest me if they've just redecorated.

 

[Pogo]

Telephone robots using personal pronouns piss me off. A robot saying "sorry, I didn't get that" is not only claiming personhood with I; it's claiming to feel emotion. That's just wrong.

Well, since the computer uses voice recognition technology, if it says, "I didn't get that", it very literally did not get what you said, in much the same way that a human might not understand what you said. And what else would the computer refer to itself as besides "I"? As for the apology, that's not really emotion so much as a grammatical convention to politely let you know that communication is not happening correctly. How often when you say, "Sorry" to someone are you ACTUALLY feeling sorry?

"Politely" proves the point. A machine has no feelings, ergo no need for "polite". We use it between ourselves to soften speech so that it's understood it's not meant aggressively. Since a machine is not capable of emotion, it's not capable of aggression, so it has no meaning.

Methinks such a machine, particularly since it's our slave, should be programmed to use the third person neuter or better still, passive voice -- "your input was not recognized".

I just have problems with phony. Pretending machines have sentience is phony.

Then there are the menus that mindlessly say, "to continue in English, press one" -- and they just said that in English.

It's the company that's being polite, not the machine. And it's been found that customers don't like the more mechanical, "Your input was not recognized", so they phrase it in more conversational terms. I don't think anyone thinks or is pretending that the machine is sentient. It's no more phony than having a recording on your answering machine saying, "I'm sorry I missed your call". The answering machine isn't sorry about anything, no matter what it says. It's expressing the opinion of the human who owns and and programmed it.

Of course the menus say "press one" in English. It's directed at people who understand English. The next line says, "To continue in Spanish, press two" in Spanish . . . because it's directed at people who understand Spanish. What would be the point of addressing English speakers in another language?

The point is, when the bot says "to continue in English press one" --- it's already speaking English. What should it change to? Dead silence? Just keep English as the default, offer options for alternate languages, and quit wasting my time, or as the Bard said, "Out, damned Bot!"

My answering machine/voice mail doesn't say anything -- I say it, via a recording. Since I'm sentient I get to use a personal pronoun. Machines aren't, so they don't. Simple as that. Because when I hear "I" or "we" the first thing I ask is "who's 'we'? Who's talking?"

Similar to the way PCs used to say "My Computer" -- and that's the computer itself saying that, which means either my computer has its own computer, or some unknown entity is claiming ownership of my computer now. They have since fixed that with "This PC" but it took years.

I also never figured out why parents with young children speak of themselves in the third person, e.g. "not now Susie, Daddy's got to work" (spoken by Daddy). That's playing confuse-a-kid.

Well it did say pet peeves.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Right now, my pet peeve is less usage, and more enunciation. Is it really that much more effort to move your lips enough to form the words clearly, you lazy bastards? Why does everyone sound like they have a mouthful of hot mashed potatoes when they talk?

As someone who both works as an interpreter for the deaf and is gradually losing her own hearing, I have become very conscious lately of how much people communicate like mumbling, babbling idiots. What's really stunning is how prevalent it is even for medical professionals working in the audiology field to be subject to word vomit, where you simply deluge the person with rapid, unclear paragraphs worth of run-on sentences, despite knowing that, by definition, the patients you're speaking to are HEARING IMPAIRED.

Is it too much trouble for people to plan out what they're going to say just a little bit, complete an occasional sentence with a pause for breath, enunciate just a hair, and refrain from filling every silence with meaningless noises? Gah.

 

[Pogo]

Was just reminded of this from a thread title:

"FAIL"

The word as intended, is failure. Fail is a verb, dammit.
See also "disconnect" used in spite of the fact that we have the noun disconnection.

 

[Unkotare]

I share your spleen on "12pm". I always have to ask, do you mean noon or midnight? ...

Then you are pretty stupid.

 

[Pogo]

I share your spleen on "12pm". I always have to ask, do you mean noon or midnight? ...

Then you are pretty stupid.

No, I'm observant. If "a.m." is before noon and "p.m." is after it, then noon itself is neither, nor is midnight. What the fuck is 12 p.m. after -- itself?

Duh.

 

[Unkotare]

I share your spleen on "12pm". I always have to ask, do you mean noon or midnight? ...

Then you are pretty stupid.

No, I'm observant. If "a.m." is before noon and "p.m." is after it, then noon itself is neither, nor is midnight. What the fuck is 12 p.m. after -- itself?

Duh.

Wow, you really are stupid.

 

[Moonglow]

Did I really type, "Linguisting"?

And driving your nutz?

 

[Pogo]

I share your spleen on "12pm". I always have to ask, do you mean noon or midnight? ...

Then you are pretty stupid.

No, I'm observant. If "a.m." is before noon and "p.m." is after it, then noon itself is neither, nor is midnight. What the fuck is 12 p.m. after -- itself?

Duh.

Wow, you really are stupid.

Wasn't my intention to embarrass you, but you brought it up.
The fact remains, neither 12 o'clock, nor any other time, can be before or after itself. Time is either before 12, after 12, or 12 itself. "12 AM" and "12 PM" do not exist. 12:00 is either noon, or it is midnight. If noon is noon, then by definition it cannot be before or after itself.

• Terms 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. cause confusion and should not be used as neither the "12 am" nor the "12 pm" designation is technically correct.
• It advisable to use 12 noon and 12 midnight where clarity is required.
• To avoid ambiguity, airlines, railroads, and insurance companies use 12:01am for an event beginning the day, 11:59pm for ending it. -- Worldtimezone.com

Again, duh.

If this concept is over your head perhaps you should find a thread that fits your intellect. If such threads even exist. This forum isn't intended for your incessant tantrum psychoses.

 

[Unkotare]

I share your spleen on "12pm". I always have to ask, do you mean noon or midnight? ...

Then you are pretty stupid.

No, I'm observant. If "a.m." is before noon and "p.m." is after it, then noon itself is neither, nor is midnight. What the fuck is 12 p.m. after -- itself?

Duh.

Wow, you really are stupid.

Wasn't my intention to embarrass you...

Good thing, since you've only managed to make yourself look like even more of a fool than usual.

 

[Pogo]

I share your spleen on "12pm". I always have to ask, do you mean noon or midnight? ...

Then you are pretty stupid.

No, I'm observant. If "a.m." is before noon and "p.m." is after it, then noon itself is neither, nor is midnight. What the fuck is 12 p.m. after -- itself?

Duh.

Wow, you really are stupid.

Wasn't my intention to embarrass you.
The fact remains, neither 12 o'clock, nor any other time, can be before or after itself. Time is either before 12, after 12, or 12 itself. "12 AM" and "12 PM" do not exist. 12:00 is either noon, or it is midnight. If noon is noon, then by definition it cannot be before or after itself.

• Terms 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. cause confusion and should not be used as neither the "12 am" nor the "12 pm" designation is technically correct.
• It advisable to use 12 noon and 12 midnight where clarity is required.
• To avoid ambiguity, airlines, railroads, and insurance companies use 12:01am for an event beginning the day, 11:59pm for ending it. -- Worldtimezone.com

Again, duh.

If this concept is over your head perhaps you should find a thread that fits your intellect. If such threads even exist. This forum isn't intended for your incessant tantrum psychoses.

Good thing, since you've only managed to make yourself look like even more of a fool than usual.

I'm not the one so desperate for contrarian attention that I go trolling a thread about words of all things and claim noon is noon. When you go to those lengths to troll you have deep psychological flaws.

See a doctor, yesterday.

 

[Unkotare]

Your ignorance is not my fault, moron. No one asked you to make an ass of yourself.

 

[Cassy Mo]

Confusing 'woman/women' drives me up the wall, and it's more common than it should be.

Man is singular.

Men is plural.

Woman is singular.

Women is plural.