What’s in a name? That which we call a bike path, by any other name would…

[cyclingfool]

@dkel 102658 wrote:

I did appreciate the appearance of an Oxford comma in the penultimate sentence, though.

Gotta love that comma. It may be referred to by any of a number of names: Oxford comma, serial comma, and Harvard comma.

[dkel]

@Orestes Munn 102675 wrote:

It really is bad out there. The confusion over the use of “which,” “that,” and “who(m)” is complete, even among professional writers, with “that” replacing the other two. Misuse of “leverage,” “beg the question,” “in waiting,” and “hedge,” are also pervasive in the newspapers and embitter my coffee every morning.

Misuse of “lay” and “lie” drives me nuts. To me, it’s worse than “who” and “whom,” but not by much.

[dkel]

@chris_s 102676 wrote:

No it isn’t.

None of these grammar things are actually as legalistic as people like me pretend them to be. (That won’t stop me, though. 😡 )

[PotomacCyclist]

@bobco85 102673 wrote:

Ah, I didn’t even notice those!

My time reading articles, blogs, comments, etc. online has decreased my grammar-detecting abilities (I noticed recently that I tend to phonetically read Internet text due to all the spelling errors I encounter). I’m usually just impressed enough if someone can use the proper version of homophones like “they’re, there, and their” and “two, to, and too” (I’ve actually given up on people using the correct version of “its” versus “it’s”). Right now, the only thing that really annoys me is when people use “should/could/would of” instead of the correct “should/could/would have.”

Dropping apostrophes is a time-honored tradition. Or a nod to the fact that the use of an apostrophe will be inconsistent and many will get confused by it. One prominent example in DC is the name of St. Elizabeths.

“St Elizabeths had been the name given to the original 600-acre tract of land by a 17th century owner, John Charman IV. The curious absence of an apostrophe in “Elizabeths” dates to a time when the use of such punctuation was inconsistent at best. Congress officially changed the name to St Elizabeths Hospital in 1916.”

http://stelizabethseast.com/our-history/

But yes, I find the confusion over “its” and “it’s” distracting. I always pause to figure out which version I should use, but it’s annoying to have to stop like that each time. (Auto Correct works sometimes, but incorrectly at other times.)

I’ve also noticed that many people type “you” instead of “your” for some reason. As though it’s a chore to type the extra letter. I see this in edited texts and advertisements as well as in casual forum posts. I don’t know why.

To turn this around back to cycling, another strange situation is the word “biker,” which many/most use to refer to motorcyclists (“biker gangs”) but many also use to refer to cyclists/bicyclists.

[PotomacCyclist]

I’m personally against “beg the question.” (It’s a cause with me! OK, not really.) I know the modern use (used to mean “raises the question”) is supposed to be incorrect, but I rarely see or hear people use the traditional meaning except in formal academic papers or statements from philosophers. (I saw Plato and Aristotle walking around the Mall the other day.) I can’t even remember the original meaning most of the time. I have to look it up, even though I’ve looked it up many times before, and I usually remember these things.

I’d say that it’s similar to the word “decimate,” which originally meant to kill one of every ten soldiers, but now means widespread destruction or damage. Very few people use the word in its original meaning nowadays. Even dictionaries list the modern definition first, as the most common one.

[PotomacCyclist]

@chris_s 102676 wrote:

No it isn’t.

But I have to admit that I’ve had changing views about split infinitives over the years.

[Tim Kelley]

HEY GUYS, hey guys….

What did the English teacher call Santa’s elves? SUBORDINATE CLAUSES!!

hahahahahahahhaahahahha…amirIte?

[PotomacCyclist]

:groan:

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[PotomacCyclist]

I guess this is what happens when you introduce grammar discussion to a bike forum. Bad things, man.

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[Tim Kelley]

@PotomacCyclist 102695 wrote:

I guess this is what happens when you introduce grammar discussion to a bike forum. Bad things, man.

We’re doing bike jokes now?

Q: What’s the difference between a well dressed man on a bicycle and a poorly dressed man on a unicycle?

A: Oh, just attire…

[Tim Kelley]

And that folks, is how it is done.

[Orestes Munn]

@PotomacCyclist 102688 wrote:

I’m personally against “beg the question.” (It’s a cause with me! OK, not really.) I know the modern use (used to mean “raises the question”) is supposed to be incorrect, but I rarely see or hear people use the traditional meaning except in formal academic papers or statements from philosophers. (I saw Plato and Aristotle walking around the Mall the other day.) I can’t even remember the original meaning most of the time. I have to look it up, even though I’ve looked it up many times before, and I usually remember these things.

I’d say that it’s similar to the word “decimate,” which originally meant to kill one of every ten soldiers, but now means widespread destruction or damage. Very few people use the word in its original meaning nowadays. Even dictionaries list the modern definition first, as the most common one.

Imprecise use of decimate still conveys the original meaning qualitatively, but to say “beg” when you mean “raise” is quite another thing, in my opinion. Also, the concept of begging the question, to wit, offering support for an argument, which (note the correct usage) presupposes the argument’s validity, is very useful. It seems unfortunate to lose the term to another meaning just because of peoples’ ignorance.

How about “out of pocket” to mean “away from the office?”

[PotomacCyclist]

This thread got derailed on the very first day it was posted. Nothing wrong with that.

*** This post is sponsored by your friendly neighborhood protected bikeway ***

[PotomacCyclist]

@Tim Kelley 102697 wrote:

And that folks, is how it is done.

Actually, this is how you derail a bike forum thread:

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[rcannon100]

When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.’

‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master – that’s all.’

[Author]

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