• palordrolap@fedia.io
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    11 days ago

    I envy these linguists’ ability to either not be irked by grammar errors at all or to be able to deal with their irritation when errors arise.

    • lad@programming.dev
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      11 days ago

      I also envy their ability to understand what was meant, because sometimes there are enough errors to make meaning completely impossible to discern

      • gwl [he/him]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        11 days ago

        There’s this thing in linguistics, casual language requires backchanneling - to respond back with either short utterances that show you understand, or to show confusion and then ask for clarity

        The reason formal language is formalised, as in the shit used in essays, is that there is no easy way to say “what did you mean?” - the feedback loop is far too slow for that process and by the point the author(s) get to respond they likely forget what they meant as well

        • lad@programming.dev
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          11 days ago

          This makes so much sense, my most painful experience in understanding department is from forums where feedback is at best hours long, and infinitely long at worst if the person never ever replies

          • gwl [he/him]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            8 days ago

            Honestly, you might enjoy the PopSci book Because Internet it’s by a linguist that studies neologisms and emerging language patterns as her main focus, focusing specifically on the growth of casual informal language that has only been made possible by The Internet