• lemmyknow@lemmy.today
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    4 days ago

    the proper way to write something

    a correct way of doing anything

    If there are correct ways, there are incorrect ways. Now, with all the variation in between different countries’ use of a common language, which is the correct? Surely the US way of spelling things is the wrong way, with their Zs and whatnot. And their use of the wrong measurement units, what a shame.

    Or maybe, maybe there isn’t just one way to do things and people can do it differently. Perhaps AAVE isn’t incorrect — but rather different. And Jamaican Patwah — which may seem like “broken English” — is in fact its own valid thing

    • ben@lemmy.zip
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      4 days ago

      There’s a difference between dialects and different spellings of the same words and just flat out using the incorrect word for the meaning you’re trying to convey.

      • lemmyknow@lemmy.today
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        3 days ago

        Isn’t meaning derived from the usage, though? If people start using a word to mean a different thing, the meaning changes, no? Communication depends on the interpretation of the listener, and the intention of the speaker. Communication works when the listener understands a meaning intended by the speaker. Otherwise, the message hasn’t properly been communicated. Just look at words like “goat.” It can mean an animal, yes. But when I ponder whether a quirked up white boy bussing it down sexual style is goated with the sauce, I am not wondering whether said boy has become a literal animal.

        Words are inert. They’re just symbols.

        • KSP Atlas@sopuli.xyz
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          3 days ago

          EXACTLY this is what I’m thinking

          I can understand using formal language in formal places but lemmy generally isn’t super formal

          I think with the rise of the internet informal writing has gotten significantly more common, which is leading to changes in the written language

          For a long time stuff like slang has generally been limited to speech, transcriptions of speech and quotations, but with messaging and internet, it’s common to write in the same register as you speak

    • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      Wait what’s the thing about Z’s? The main dialect difference I notice is the lack of French-style u’s like color vs. colour.