You eeeeediots!

[janetlin]

Someone in my Linguistics class today asked, "What's a preposition?"

I shit you not.

Comments

[allova.livejournal.com]

*winces* Oh dear. Would dirty linguistics jokes cheer you up at this point? Or would they just make things worse?

[janetlin.livejournal.com]

Tee hee, sure.

[allova.livejournal.com]

Two of my friends in high school one English lesson listed "alternate" definitions for assorted linguistic terms. I can't find the piece of paper for the life of me, so I shall have to email her.

I do remember "preposition" having the alternate meaning of "foreplay" (think carefully about it...) and "syntax" being "child support".

[janetlin.livejournal.com]

Oh heavens.

[elven-alchemist.livejournal.com]

Very pretty indeed. When I was looking for a job, on one of my interviws I said something about "intercourse" with customers. Even now, half a year after that, my friends whom I told about this still laugh.
You can't really rely on dictionnaries, people would always find a way to pervert everything...

[janetlin.livejournal.com]

Pretty?

[elven-alchemist.livejournal.com]

Is it not a correct word to use here?;-))
Excuse my English then please;-)))

[janetlin.livejournal.com]

Depends. To what were you referring when you said, "Very pretty indeed"?

[elven-alchemist.livejournal.com]

I was referring to allova's "alternate" definitions in whole and the particular examples she gave, because it's usually very interesting and funny how people can find new meanings for the words, I know some stuff like that in Russian, though in English it's usually difficult for me to understand some things.
It's just lots of fun.
I purposely put the comment as reply to allova's post to indicate where it belongs. Sorry if made some confusion *blush and confused*

[janetlin.livejournal.com]

Ah, I understand now.

[cat-i-th-adage.livejournal.com]

So this is a first year linguistics course, yes? Some people were shorted in high school and are trying to catch up. A lot of them turn up in first year courses.

I can understand your frustration.

I still prefer people asking questions to reduce their ignorance though.

[janetlin.livejournal.com]

Granted, it is Intro. to Linguistics, but it's an upper-division class, which are generally for juniors and seniors (third-year of college and higher).

It totally should have a prerequisite of Advanced English Grammar (actually, even just a survey course sounds like it would help most of the students in with me), and/or Linguistics of the English Language. It's a pretty broad and abstract subject to try teaching to people who have never taken anything like it.

[cat-i-th-adage.livejournal.com]

You should see some of the folk I end up with in my respeckerbal job.

English Down and Dirty

*twitch, twitch*

[janetlin.livejournal.com]

I don't mind people who aren't as fanatical about their language as I am, as long as they don't hamper my education in the process...

[cat-i-th-adage.livejournal.com]

I've found that people who learned English as a second language tend to know a good bit more grammar than people who grew up with it. One of those funny things.

[janetlin.livejournal.com]

I think people make more of an effort with a second language, to get things right. It wasn't until I was trying to learning German that I finally started making sense of what my high school English teachers had been beating us over the heads with for so many years. Grammar seems pointless in high school, so for most people it just doesn't stick.