It's "could have been", not "could of been"

Off The Grid said:

I think it's important for my Fellow Grammar Nazis and I to keep ever in mind that all Languages are in a constant State of Flux: I, for one, can't understand a damned thing that Shakespeare is trying to say.

And he, in turn, would've probably had a very difficult time understanding King Arthur.

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PatsFanInVa said:

Shakespeare is easier than you think... if you get stuck, don't be ashamed and go to the Cliff notes (or the Web equivalent.) You get the hang of it. He's very close to modern English... and speaking of neologisms and turns of phrase, we owe an enormous number of figures of speech and words themselves to this one dude. The plots are engrossing once you're past the stumbling block.

Providing that Arthur actually spoke any form of English very well... there's a theory out there that Arthur was among the last of the Romans posted in Britain. Mists of time and all that.

But another comparison would be Beowulf... Shakespeare is very close to modern English, but Beowulf isn't recognizable to the modern English speaker. In between is Chaucer... once you know "yclept" means "named" and a couple of other things, you can stumble along pretty well with only a few checks for meaning per page. It's probably like a native Spanish speaker reading Portuguese, as opposed to Latin (assuming he never learned either of them formally).

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Off The Grid said:

That's why it doesn't bother me when new Expressions, Figures of Speech, Adaptations, and such emerge.

I find some far more enjoyable than others, mind you.

And I think that there's an enormous difference between the Evolution of a Language...and its Devolution.

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PatsFanInVa said:

Plus ça change and all that... there's nothing permanent but change.

The question in my mind is how you define evolution and devolution.

It looks like you think of it as completely dependent on personal preference

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PatsFanInVa said:

Owslek might have some of the following experience from songwriting

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Off The Grid said:

I'd just like to say that, for whatever it's worth, this just about the most Fun I've had in any Thread Ever!!

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Joker said:

looks like you're bucking for Dean...but first a little test...who uttered these famous words..

in my old neighborhood it was said "you can get farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word... answer correctly and your tenor as Dean shall convence...

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Joker said:

looks like you're bucking for Dean...but first a little test...who uttered these famous words..

in my old neighborhood it was said "you can get farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word... answer correctly and your tenor as Dean shall convence...

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Off The Grid said:

I'd just like to say that, for whatever it's worth, this just about the most Fun I've had in any Thread Ever!!

To all of you on all Sides of this fascinating ongoing Discussion: my Fellow Grammar Nazis and Recovering Grammar Nazis, and also to you Communicative Anarchists and Arsonists, all!!

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Oswlek said:

Are the syllables being stressed properly so you don't end up singing "computer" like COMpuTER?

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Wax Frog said:

Computer as lyric? This I want to hear!!!

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Off The Grid said:

I'd just like to say that, for whatever it's worth, this just about the most Fun I've had in any Thread Ever!!

To all of you on all Sides of this fascinating ongoing Discussion: my Fellow Grammar Nazis and Recovering Grammar Nazis, and also to you Communicative Anarchists and Arsonists, all!!

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Tunescribe said:

Why did you capitalize all those words?

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Off The Grid said:

Fair Question...

01 ~ I like to Capitalize Nouns. Not all'f'm. Just the meaty ones.

02 ~ I also like to Capitalize Verbs. See Above for Guiding Principles.

03 ~ I even Capitalize the occasional Adjective, May The Gods Forgive Me.

04 ~ Oh. Which brings me to: I also like to Capitalize Announcements, Expressions, and such.

05 ~ Originally, it was just the occasional Noun. I may've picked up the Habit from some Language I studied at some point ~ Alammanian, perhaps, or Java. But then it evolved beyond Nouns. A Progressive Affliction?

06 ~ Truth Be Told, though: I believe that many more words should be capitalized than Convention allows for. And I have very little Regard for Convention. As such, I am ultimately Unrepentant.

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Tunescribe said:

How and when did they become so advanced? From what I recall their vocabulary comprised grunts, howls, whimpers and whining.

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PatsFanInVa said:

You used "comprised" right - POINTS!

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Joker said:

looks like you're bucking for Dean...but first a little test...who uttered these famous words..

in my old neighborhood it was said "you can get farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word... answer correctly and your tenor as Dean shall convence...

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Oswlek said:

Outstanding post, PFinVA! Funny and insightful.

Most of my love of language has come from songwriting.... and most of my biggest headaches as well.

First and foremost, you learn very quickly how difficult it is to get an idea across. You could write what you feel is the most basic straightforward lyric ever crafted and still find that less than half the people understand what you are trying to say; and this is true even in a written format when people can reread anything they find opaque.

Obviously this is different than a paragraph in a football forum, but it is still eye opening how much is lost in translation.

From there you have to decide whether it bothers you if it is being misunderstood, as well as how it is misunderstood. If it does, you need to go back through and find a way to provide more clarity. This can often take several drafts to resolve.

Of course, getting the message across is only the starting point, not the finish line. Do the words fit nicely into the melody and the tempo? Are the syllables being stressed properly so you don't end up singing "computer" like COMpuTER? Is it interesting enough to warrant a listener investing 4 minutes of their time? Does it leave you with at least a few memorable moments? Does it spend too much time telling or does it paint visceral images for the listener? Too much repetition? Too little?

Once you understand how powerful language can be - and after you've spent thousands of hours editing and rewriting - unnecessary errors like, "could of" have a way of sticking in your craw. The same is true for me; I regularly edit my posts to fix typos or if I feel something could be clearer or more engaging.



Here, here!

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