A Message to all Grammar Freaks (and food for thought for others)
This message is particularly directed for all grammar freaks, but anyone can read it just for entertainment or as something to spark thought on the subject. Why, o why do so many people spasm, convulse, and become insane whenever someone says “me too”, instead “I also”? Why do they insist that you follow the rules some board or committee picked? What gives a few people the right to establish rules for a language that has roots going back thousands of years, to its earliest ancestral tongues?
Language is a means of communication, that said, if somebody can understand you, it is enough.
Anybody can understand me if I make some grammar mistake, the point is whether I can get the message across. Yet the freaks insist you get everything right. Why do we insist on regulating a language that has always and always will change? I have a teacher who is a zealot in maintaining strict use of correct grammar, even in spoken language. This is the idea of language: when someone listens to another, they don’t think of the exact definition of each word heard and then try to put it together; they get a feeling for the tone and subject matter, and then apply a general meaning to the words that makes sense. Whether you say “me too” or “I also” won’t make a difference. Others will still understand what you are saying in general.
Just keep in mind, every change ever in language started out as a difference from the norm. If you say something that is very difficult or impossible to understand, then someone should correct you. But if someone corrects you even when most people would understand you, then that’s their problem.
Language is a means of communication, that said, if somebody can understand you, it is enough.
Anybody can understand me if I make some grammar mistake, the point is whether I can get the message across. Yet the freaks insist you get everything right. Why do we insist on regulating a language that has always and always will change? I have a teacher who is a zealot in maintaining strict use of correct grammar, even in spoken language. This is the idea of language: when someone listens to another, they don’t think of the exact definition of each word heard and then try to put it together; they get a feeling for the tone and subject matter, and then apply a general meaning to the words that makes sense. Whether you say “me too” or “I also” won’t make a difference. Others will still understand what you are saying in general.
Just keep in mind, every change ever in language started out as a difference from the norm. If you say something that is very difficult or impossible to understand, then someone should correct you. But if someone corrects you even when most people would understand you, then that’s their problem.
posted by Scriptor | 8/26/2005 05:37:00 PM
1 Comments:
You make a fair point, especially as far as your teacher goes.
I'm actually somewhat overzealous when it comes to grammar, but there are few things that irk me more than supposed grammar experts who prescribe based on their own personal tastes and biases. There is, indeed, a reason to consider that the comment ought to be "I also"; your teacher believes that you're contracting a verbal structure. For example, "I also enjoy drinking beer" rather than "Me also enjoy drinking beer".
This seems pretty straight-forward, and yet I - a self-confessed grammar nut - never use "I also" as an utterance. You see - and this is where you can put one over on your teacher - I justify it as being a contraction ... but this time of something along the lines of "That goes for me too", which is perfectly acceptable English.
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