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Re: Spelling and Grammar in our e-mails

Wes,

How do you know that the dropping of the "d" in "measured" and "closed" was
deliberate or intentional versus mere sloppiness "laziness" ????

Joel

Of course, this may be how shortened forms enter the vernacular

-----Original Message-----
From: Wes Davis [mailto:wlrdavis@EARTHLINK.NET]
Sent: Saturday, March 08, 2003 11:50 AM
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Subject: Re: Spelling and Grammar in our e-mails


Yet, the rapidity with which the "ed" ending of words is being lost is
alarming, at least to me:-)
It seems that young people, in their efforts to embrace more
primitive forms
of communication, are increasingly prone to omitting the "ed"
in all such
words. I see this commonly in lab reports.

I have become accustomed to "cream corn", "cream cheese",
"wax paper", "ice
cream", to mention a few that have made their way into common
usage. Now I
am being subject to such expressions as "the door is close"
to mean it's not
open, and "The length of the object was measure", to describe
an operation
done in the past.

Alas, tearing of hair, rending of garments, etc.





----- Original Message -----
From: "Bernard Cleyet" <anngeorg@PACBELL.NET>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Saturday, March 08, 2003 8:04 AM
Subject: Re: Spelling and Grammar in our e-mails


This is a another déjà vu. It's a fight between the
prescriptivists and
the
descriptivists. The young as a rebellion are
descriptivists. (A rather
harmless form of rebellion which should be fought, so as to
prevent their
switching to a more lethal form, e.g. Marin Taliban.)

Another example is lit and lighted, however the dict.
(mine, of course)
distinguishes them -- they have sl. diff. uses.

The problem is that England being a long term imperial
power (still is as
our
lap dog) and conquered by the French, et al.?, incorporated
many exotic
words
and grammatical forms into their language. It was an eye
opener to lean
German (grundstufe) in Dresden.

bc who thinks using Shakespeare as an authority of
"correct" usage is
wrong.
Tho he wrote for Elizabeth he also wrote for the "general".
Check the
writings of the contemporary University dons.




Mark Sylvester wrote:

Indeed, many verbs used to form the past tense with 't',
even if only a
few
retain it as an option... spoilt, burnt, leant, knelt... Open
Shakespeare
almost anywhere and you'll find some of these. Romeo to
Mercutio: "I
dreamt
a dream tonight..." Herb, you can blame your English teachers for
inculcating a misconception!

Mark

At 08:36 08/03/03 -0500, Vern Lindberg wrote:
...
While reading his interesting comments, the verb, "learnt"
that he used happened to catch my eye. In my younger days,
I did a considerable amount of professional proofreading
as a technical writer. I remembered that back in
school, we were
always cautioned to say "learned" rather than the incorrect
word "learnt"

Incorrect according to whom?

However, I just checked my Webster's Dictionary and,
sure enough,
the word "learnt" was listed there along with some other
accepted choices. I was wondering if anyone else on this
list-serve had similar experiences. ......

...


Herb Gottlieb from New York City
Where only our New York Times newspaper seemd to be paying
attention to our old-fashioned spelling and grammar)

Whose "old-fashioned spelling and grammar?" A quick check on the
Merriam Webster online (<http://www.m-w.com/home.htm>)
says "chiefly
British past and past participle of LEARN"

My Random House also has "learnt" as an alternative spelling, but
with no etymology. It could be that "learnt" is as old
or older as
"learned."

Mark Sylvester
UWCAd
Duino Trieste Italy