Early retirement for media phrases?

TromboneAl said:
Last night we watched

Kissing Jessica Stein

which I recommend -- great movie.

Much of the movie is how Jessica Stein rejects many of her suitors because of their lack of language skills (for example, one of her dates says "Well, I'm a self-defecating individual.").

But, can you catch the grammatical error that Jessica Stein makes in this trailer?
Click to expand...
Well, I can't. But I also just realized that if I want to ruin any appeal I might have for women on this planet all I have to do is to add being critical of their grammar to being choosey about their bottoms. Many divorced men (including me) will admit that being too critical too often helped them achieve that marital status. :(

I just want to see examples of men screwing up, and in ways that an average person would notice- so that I can improve my own performance. :)

Ha
 
GregLee said:
"Grow" is a transitive verb; cf. "grow corn", "grow a beard".
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Although it has come to be used in some circumstances as a transitive verb, I contend such usage is incorrect. The corn grows; you cultivate it.
 
Gumby said:
Although it has come to be used in some circumstances as a transitive verb, I contend such usage is incorrect.
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Do you have any evidence at all for your contention? It seems to be something you just made up. I just looked at several dictionaries, and I find several transitive uses of "grow" listed.

Let me suggest to you that what you find peculiar about "grow the economy" is not that "grow" is used transitively, but rather that it is used causatively, to mean "cause the economy to grow". At first blush, it might seem that the ordinary transitive use of "grow" is causative, since when you grow corn, you cause corn to grow. But the reverse implication doesn't hold, since the sun may cause corn to grow, but it would be unusual to speak of the sun growing corn.
 
GregLee said:
Do you have any evidence at all for your contention? It seems to be something you just made up. I just looked at several dictionaries, and I find several transitive uses of "grow" listed.

Let me suggest to you that what you find peculiar about "grow the economy" is not that "grow" is used transitively, but rather that it is used causatively, to mean "cause the economy to grow". At first blush, it might seem that the ordinary transitive use of "grow" is causative, since when you grow corn, you cause corn to grow. But the reverse implication doesn't hold, since the sun may cause corn to grow, but it would be unusual to speak of the sun growing corn.
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I'll admit that "grow corn" does not offend me as much as "grow the economy". Perhaps it is for the reason you describe. In any event, it is just a personal dislike of mine.
 
I'm rarely bothered by grammer. The one thing I really do dislike, however, is when people use a double negative. An example would be last week when my helper said: "I aint doin' nuthin tonight". I said "so that means your doing something,right?" She just gave me a dirty look.
 
aaronc879 said:
The one thing I really do dislike, however, is when people use a double negative.
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You should try to get over that, since it's parochial. It's entirely a matter of convention which differs from language to language and dialect to dialect as to whether a single logical negation is reflected in just one or in several morphologically negative forms.
 
aaronc879 said:
I'm rarely bothered by grammer. The one thing I really do dislike, however, is when people use a double negative. An example would be last week when my helper said: "I aint doin' nuthin tonight". I said "so that means your doing something,right?" She just gave me a dirty look.
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See my post # 51 above.

Ha
 
Gumby said:
I'll admit that "grow corn" does not offend me as much as "grow the economy". Perhaps it is for the reason you describe. In any event, it is just a personal dislike of mine.
Click to expand...

Why would you be offended by a growing economy? :LOL:
 
In the Wallymart parking lot I saw on a car's front tag, (PA only issues rear license tags) this vanity tag.

"If you aint a Steeler's fan, you aint $hit"
(I modified the letter "S" for the profanity police)

So I ask teenage driver of that car: If you are a Steelers fan what does that make you?

Got a blank stare.

I drove home smiling the whole way.

PS... is there "aint" in the dictionary?
 
aaronc879 said:
I'm rarely bothered by grammer. The one thing I really do dislike, however, is when people use a double negative. An example would be last week when my helper said: "I aint doin' nuthin tonight". I said "so that means your doing something,right?" She just gave me a dirty look.
Click to expand...

Yes, double negatives are the perfect example, because it's not really a grammar issue, it's a logical issue, or just a common sense issue.

"Me is going fishing" may sound terrible, but it's wrong only because of an arbitrary grammar rule. "I didn't eat nothing" is wrong independent of any rules, and I don't understand why people say it.

BTW, I was wrong about "I have to go slow." I looked it up, and found that "slow" can be an adverb:

USAGE NOTE Slow may sometimes be used instead of slowly when it comes after the verb: We drove the car slow. In formal writing slowly is generally preferred. Slow is often used in speech and informal writing, especially when brevity and forcefulness are sought: Drive slow! Slow is also the established idiom

​
One reason I got into grammar was that the company I worked for in the 80s produced an educational game called "The Grammar Examiner."

On the back of the package, one of the user review blurbs spelled "grammar" as "grammer." So we had to manually strategically place a sticker over that on every package.
 
That so many ERs are fascinated by grammar is interesting. Similar to our quasi-erotic relationship with spreadsheets.

Does anyone think that the personality that seeks and achieves ER is even remotely normal?

Ha
 
haha said:
That so many ERs are fascinated by grammar is interesting. Similar to our quasi-erotic relationship with spreadsheets.

Does anyone think that the personality that seeks and achieves ER is even remotely normal?

Ha
Click to expand...

If we were normal we would be normal-retired or average-retired.:cool:
 
toofrugalformycat said:
If we were normal we would be normal-retired or average-retired.:cool:
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Oh, I definitely agree with you on this. :)


It is nevertheless fascinating to see how thoroughgoing and wide-ranging the differences are.

Ha
 
"We turn to _____, an expert."

I'm not falling for it. Post up a resume and credentials, and an on-the-job video or photo first, and then maybe I'll think about listening to them.
 
You grammar police must have a terrible time with pidgin & other creoles.

My mother-in-law has a degree in English and is a former elementary school teacher. When she was living on Oahu, anytime she encountered pidgin her brain interpreted it as "ignorant, deaf person". She'd start to speak slower, with greater enunciation, and at a higher volume. Eventually she'd get frustrated and give up, returning another day hoping to encounter someone who would "speak propah English".

She never made the connection between her reaction to hearing pidgin and the resulting lack of customer service. Of course she noticed that she only got bad customer service from people speaking pidgin, but she never figured out why. As far as she could tell an entire island was dumb & deaf, including her granddaughter.

She's much happier now living near the DC Beltway. That is, as long as she doesn't encounter anyone from "Bal'mer"...
 
BigNick said:
Ah! You should have a look here.
Click to expand...

Funny.

It reminds me of this thing:

Guy 1: I would like to sleep with Claudia Schiffer.
Guy 2: Yeah, I bet you would.

To which Guy 1 should reply, "Yes, I just said that I would."
 
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