Text and e-mail messaging slaughtering grammar: Experts

Felicity Goh, AAP
23 April 2004 12:34 PM
Tags: felicity, goh, e-mail, mobile, phone, texting, aap, experts

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Talkback 8 comments

    Erm... Shouldn't that be "Media" rather then Mediums"?Anonymous -- 23/04/04

    Erm... Shouldn't that be "Media" rather then Mediums"?

    Don't drop the apostrophe. It does something. It has a use. Also, I get a great deal of enjoyment correcting people who use it incorrectly.Anonymous -- 23/04/04

    Don't drop the apostrophe. It does something. It has a use. Also, I get a great deal of enjoyment correcting people who use it incorrectly.

    Love that - an comment correcting an error on an article about incorrect use of grammar has a spelling mistake in it - ah the irony !! lolAnonymous -- 23/04/04

    Love that - an comment correcting an error on an article about incorrect use of grammar has a spelling mistake in it - ah the irony !! lol

    "... because language today serves the purpose of speed and social interaction," So when I was talking yesterday it WASN'T social interaction?Anonymous -- 23/04/04

    "... because language today serves the purpose of speed and social interaction,"

    So when I was talking yesterday it WASN'T social interaction?

    Nope, "Medium" is the correct word to use. "Medias such as television advertisements and public billboards..." doesn't make a lot of sense as a sentence. How about the irony of correcting a person correcting an article aAnonymous -- 23/04/04

    Nope, "Medium" is the correct word to use.
    "Medias such as television advertisements and public billboards..." doesn't make a lot of sense as a sentence.

    How about the irony of correcting a person correcting an article about incorrect grammar usage? ;)

    Oh Edward! The reason that "Medias such as television advertisements..." doesn't make a lot of sense is because there is no such word as "medias", media being the plural of medium. One of my concerns is how we would ever manAnonymous -- 23/04/04

    Oh Edward! The reason that "Medias such as television advertisements..." doesn't make a lot of sense is because there is no such word as "medias", media being the plural of medium.

    One of my concerns is how we would ever manage to buy apples and oranges if the greengrocer's apostrophe as in apple's and orange's was banned.

    Doesn't the phrase "purpose of speed and social interaction" mention two purposes? Now I'm not one to be a pedantic nuisance but it's fun to pick apart an article about correct English usage. :-)Anonymous -- 26/04/04

    Doesn't the phrase "purpose of speed and social interaction" mention two purposes? Now I'm not one to be a pedantic nuisance but it's fun to pick apart an article about correct English usage. :-)

    Media is not the plural form of medium. Rather media is the plural form in Latin, and the usage of either the Latin plural or the English plural (“mediums”) can be considered acceptable. While some “purists” belieAnonymous -- 27/04/04

    Media is not the plural form of medium. Rather media is the plural form in Latin, and the usage of either the Latin plural or the English plural (“mediums”) can be considered acceptable. While some “purists” believe and use Latin endings, other “purists” believe that once a word is adopted into a language, it should follow the laws of its adopted language. Anyway, maintaining the use of Latin grammatical endings in English is inconsistent. If you use nominative plural and accusative plural endings, why then not genitive, dative, vocative etc.? Why not genitive, dative, vocative, and ablative endings for the singular form as well? It is silly and stupid to port over this specific grammatical usage and to then apply it to all grammatical situations.

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