Subject: [Tweeters] words, words, words
Date: Apr 27 19:23:14 2009
From: Charlie - cp at charliepotter.com


You know, that does irk me at times, but I'm sorry: it's pretentious to
assume that we are all "well-educated" ,whatever that means to you.

Plus, just because we fire off quick notes to an informal email chain and
forget grammar for a moment does not mean that it happens all the time in
our day to day life and that English is dead or what-not.

So, yes you are right, you are annoying more people than you are
"educating".



From: tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of William
Kaufman
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 6:38 PM
To: Guttman,Burton; tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] words, words, words




Hear, hear ! ! !

Bill Kaufman
Woodinville

On 4/27/09 4:24 PM, "Guttman,Burton" <GuttmanB at evergreen.edu> wrote:

Oh, I know I'm gonna get my ass rapped for this, and people are going to
call me a snob and a jerk and all kinds of other things. But, friends, I
think of the good folks on Tweeters as intelligent and well-educated, and
mistakes in language are beneath them. And, also, I can't stand to let
English go down the drain any more than it has already.

Friends and colleagues, there are three homophones in English that we must
not keep confusing:
1. sight: as a verb, to see something; as a noun, something one has
seen. "I sighted a Merlin overhead."
2. site: as a noun, a certain place, such as the place where
building stands; as a verb, to place something on a site, as, "We are going
to site the memorial on this site."
3. cite: only a verb, meaning (1) to call on someone to appear, as
before a court; (2) to quote or mention as an example or authority; (3) to
mention formally for commendation or praise; or (4) to call to someone's
attention.

Okay, go ahead and shoot. But it's really distressing to have intelligent
people tell us that they've "sited" an interesting bird. If we don't
maintain some standards for our language, pretty soon we'll have like people
y'know like saying that they saw this like interesting bird.

Cheers,
Burt

Burt Guttman
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 guttmanb at evergreen.edu
<mailto:guttmanb at evergreen.edu>
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S. E., Olympia, 98503



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