Does reading on the Internet hurt or help your spelling skills? (1 Viewer)

[MarkHastings]

That's odd, considering how many people just use the word condo, which makes that second O fairly obvious

But that's if you think about it as a Condo, but 260 hits for the word "Condiminium" is a good reflection on how people misspell it when written out completely.

 

[Leila Dougan]

This condo bit reminds me of something I find slightly confusing. . linux.

For short, they're called distros, but the real word is distributions. The vowel change is annoying, perhaps that is what's happening with condo and the misspelling condiminium?

 

[Chris Farmer]

My gramm is usually pretty good on-line, although in IMs I don't worry as much about punctuation or capitalization on first words (I do capitalize proper nouns). My biggest problem is typos, nto big ones, but I tend to switch characters a ton, getting them backwards, putting the space a spot too early or a letter too late (givingr esults tha tlook something like this), and the like. Spelling and grammar on this forum is definitely a cut above most others though, probably due to the longer posts in the deep discussions about movies and DVDs.

 

[MarkHastings]

The vowel change is annoying, perhaps that is what's happening with condo and the misspelling condiminium?

I'm sure that's what the problem is...People don't say the word "Condominiums" like "Condo-miniums", so I can see why people would spell it phonetically.

p.s. I also got 119 hits on the word "conduminiums".

But only 2 hits for "condaminiums".

 

[Rex Bachmann]

MarkHastings wrote (post #24):

In SAE (that is, standard American English), the word distribution is pronounced [dIstruhbyooshuhn], with the same [uh]-sound as mentioned elsewhere. (Some speakers "hypercorrect" the pronunciation, replacing the rule-correct [uh]-sound (with the [I]-sound [I] = () of, e.g., fish) of the verb [dIstrIbyoot] (where the second is stressed!!!), hence [dIstrIbyooshuhn], but English has a rule called "trisyllabic laxing" that makes clear the [uh]-sound is the alternative that is demanded by the underlying grammar of the language. Hypercorrection is a sociolinguistic phenomenon whereby "correct" grammatical outputs (whether of sound, word-form, or word order) are consciously altered by native speakers of a dialect to approximate the "presumed" correct output of a dialect with higher social prestige. Palatalization (adding a y-sound after a consonant) is one such process. Pronouncing delusion as [delyoozhuhn], for example. Using such "monstrosities" as "just between she and I", "The boss invited my wife and I over for dinner", etc. [hypercorrection rule = "Replace me/her with I/she as much as possible. It sounds 'classier'."])

I think "distro" is made from [dIstruhbyooshuhn] as if it were one of these Greek-based compounds:

psycho (although it's short for psychotic, where = phonetic [ah]), dipso-/klepto-maniac (where = phonetic [uh], unless one is trying to hypercorrect the pronunciation). Since these forms have two allomorphs (variant forms conditioned by surrounding or accompanying sound-features), e.g., phonetic [klEpto] (as in the freestanding noun) ~ phonetic [klEptuh]- (as in [klEptuh-may-nee-æk]), speakers have extracted [dIstruh]- from [dIstruhbyooshuhn] (at a natural syllable boundary, ending in a vowel), analogically reshaped /dIstruh-/ of [dIstruhbyooshuhn] into /dIstroh/ in the same way that /klEptoh/ is abstracted from [klEptuh-may-nee-æk].

Hence, /dIstroh/ is (i.e., has the same relationship) to [dIstruhbyooshuhn] as /klEptoh/ is to [klEptuh-may-nee-æk], an [oh] is substituted for an [uh]-sound in each case, despite the disparate vowel-spellings.

 

[Woo Jae]

I feel that sometimes, it has a bigger effect on the younger generation, in that they are so used to being online that their spelling, punctuation, and grammar suffer for it.

I mean my spelling is NOT 100% (despite being in a school spelling bee in elementary school) but I do try to keep my typing/responses free of grammatical and spelling errors.
It DOES get annoying trying to decipher internet jargon though...

 

[MarkHastings]

This all reminds me of the directors commentary in "Swimfan" (which I just watched this weekend). The part where Madison is Instant Messaging and writes "Y don't answer?". They pointed out the fact that she didn't say "Y don't you answer?", but they left it in because it was more representative of internet messaging.

 

[Leila Dougan]

Rex, thanks for the explanation. That's pretty much what I figured, except I didn't have the technicalities all worked out and didn't know the "proper" reason.

 

[Todd_B]

J00 9uy$ JU5T Need TO $HU+ +He HELL UP. j00 aLL @r3 @ 8uNch OF h4t3R5 th4T nE3D t0 GeT A lipHE @ND KW1t wORrYINg @80ut H0w peopL3 Type 0N +HesE B04rD5.

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[James E]

jsk speking fer misilf What Skills

 

[MarkHastings]

What Skills

James, Your Skill is that big/boney thing in your head. I don't know why people say they have more than one Skill by saying Skills...I only got one Skill in my head.



Dang DumbSkills!!

 

[James E]

priceless

edit: did this , when i wanted this .

 

[Kevin Thompson]

I think that there are several influences currently leading to declining proficiency in spelling, grammar, and punctuation, such as:

1) reading a higher percentage of poorly-written and uncorrected prose, such as can be found on the Internet, compared to previous generations' consumption of mostly professionally produced written material in books and magazines.

2) lack of interest in and even active rebellion against grammatical convention in popular culture.

3) not developing the habit of critically examining one's written output. It's easy to develop bad habits.

4) a trend among educators to condone poor writing by not correcting incidents of bad grammar in written assignments. I agree that content is more important than form, but let's not ignore a problem and hope it improves on its own.

My personal pet peeve is apostrophe abuse.

I don't want to go off on a rant, here, but where do people get the idea that they should add an apostrophe + s to form plurals of common words? For example, at the base gymnasium at Sullivan Barracks in Mannheim, Germany, there are at least ten "professionally" painted signs signs on the walls admonishing customers to "...replace weight's..." when finished working out. Grrr...

PUT THE APOSTROPHE DOWN AND SLOWLY BACK AWAY!

Am I judgmental? I probably am, but no more so than most folks. I don't fault someone for making a mistake. Even I thought I had made a mistake once, but I was wrong. :wink:

What does annoy me is the intentional misuse of grammar and spelling in an effort to seem "cool". A word or two here and there are easy enough to live with, but lengthy strings of near-gibberish are rarely worth the trouble to decipher. Why do this to one's readers?

Of course that is only my opinion. I could be wrong.

(apologies to Mr. Dennis Miller)