Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

A tangent over here got me thinking about how much I love the English language and how quirky, malleable, robust, absurd, and beautiful it is. I've often described myself as a "grammar Nazi," but in actuality I'm of two minds (or hands, as I'm about to mix my metaphors): On the one hand, incorrect--or just lazy--grammar infuriates me. But on the other hand, I admire and marvel at the English language's plasticity. The only constant thing about English, in fact, is its very inconstancy. I love the fact that nouns can be verbed, that IM and SMS shorthand "work," and that brand new words can enter the mainstream vernacular in a matter of years, sometimes months.

I don't know where I'm going with this, but if there are any other English enthusiasts, I thought it would be nice to have a place to discuss the good, the bad, the ins and the outs of our lovely language.

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I make up newish words all the time. I'd never heard anyone say "makeoutage" until I said it, for example. And I have a tendency to verbify nouns (see? just did it there!). It's remarkable how much freedom this language gives you.

Also, I got the title.

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Pfft. You did not. "Verb" (and by extension "verbify") have been used before. If you verb it once, it's verbed forever man.

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lulz, I say makeoutage all the time. I said it yesterday. Thanks for coining that.

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I actually disagree with Hobbes for once. I think verbing's become so common now that it's just an expected part of expressing stuff in English.

With chatspeak, I see that as a much needed rebellion against the completely illogical spelling system we have. It's a pain to deal with right now, but hopefully one day it'll lead to rational spelling. As it is, I'm trying to ease things in that direction in my own way by sometimes using "tho", "thru", "cuz", and other things like that

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ATTN: LOWER BOARD USERS HAVE MOVED TO ANOTHER FORUM. COME JOIN THE FUN!

I never said I did it FIRST, Jello. -_- I'd appreciate it if you'd stop pointing out EVERY LITTLE THING I DO WRONG.

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lawl, tiger. calvin and hobbes never fails to be awesome.

as an enthusiast of the language (it's been and will continue to be my life's work) i think it rocks. the illogicalities and the screwy bits are why i love english. and without them we would probably understand the more intensely logical (read: inflected) languages (russian, german, latin). but hey, i like it.

and verbification rocks. It's often more expressive. I think poets end up winning this type of thing a lot because they puch and torque meaning with words.

and sometimes i just likes to improperly congugating my verbs.

I've studied French and Latin, two very closely related languages. And it made me realize how awesome English is for expressing new stuff in new ways. Verbing is impossible in a Romance language. You'd have to change the ending to signify its verbdom and then conjugate it a bazillion different ways based on context. English is a lot more regular. Yeah, I often find myself unconsciously correcting people's grammar (how many people here know the correct usage of "whom"?) but if I know what you mean, it doesn't realy matter.

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English is a great language. I was always interested in English placenames and family names especially.

When I was little, I became fixated by all the placenames on the London tube map (for some reason), because they all sounded so very romantic (like Seven Sisters, Elephant and Castle, Swiss Cottage, White City etc etc).

I love to verbify stuff! I also love to adjectivify stuff. My stepdad and I have this sort of running joke between us. When he gets home from work, he'll go, "How was school?" Then I say, "Schoolish. How was work?" And he'll respond with "Workish."

Although, on a different note, have you ever, like, thought about an everyday word, like "fruit," and as you're thinking about it, you realize how stupid it sounds? And then after a while you suddenly can't comprehend that "fruit" means "fruit"? Like, you suddenly go, "FROOT. That's so bizzare." And then you're like, "Wait... this sweet thing with seeds and a peel that I'm eating is a FROOT? NOWAI."

...I can't explain it exactly. Sorry if you're totally lost. ._.

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No need to explain, I'm pretty sure everybody does that. Especially when reading a word over and over again.

Parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol parasol. Whoa.

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Personally, I've always enjoyed messing up the word bumpy.

Try it. Bumpy's a funny word.

Bumpy.

Eglish is great, I think the best thing about it is, like you've mentioned above, that something that may be ineffable by a single word one day will have a word of its own the next.

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Eglish. Heck yeah.

Eglish i tuly te bst lnguage eer t b ceated.

English, as she is spoke, is just boring.

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In order to do it at all, it has to be original. After it's been verbified, you can't verbify it again.

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I think I'm gonna have to agree with Mr. B. Once a noun is verbed, it's a verb, and it can't be verbed no more.

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That's not verbification, that's adjectivification! Check your morphemes.

I remember once when I got hung up during an entire math class because I just couldn't wrap my head around how weird the word "math" was.

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You look like you need a hug.
*hug*
There, now don't you feel better?

Um.. yeah, that's what Abominable Redhead said.

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English is a cool language. I like how English is used on the internet when you type some sentences in a way how you say it (with good grammar, that is). Like, I can take out the "be" in because, cause that's how I roll.

And then there's those expressions that just sound cool, but when translated into another language, they make no sense.

Then there would be internet exclamations such as PWNED which are kinda fun to pronounce in real life. Lol. J00 got PWNED! Heh.

Verbifying words eh? Like using the 'D suffix after a noun in Teen Girl Squad? Or just saying stuff like "I just phoned you"? Let see what nouns will work out for that.

Lamped
Booked
Pepsied
Framed
Cameraed
Boxed
Trophied
Fisted
Magazined
CDed
Appled
Computered
Guitared
Windowed
Clocked
Gamed
Washing machined
Televisioned
Chaired
Shirted.

(Yeah, most are objects I see in my room, and across the hall)

Hm...Some of those words sounded nice. Like Trophied, Chaired, and Guitared.

It pains me to watch people on Runescape and Newgrounds to butcher English and completely ignore how valuable it is. Really, the only thing that draws me to play Runescape is so I can go around making fun of peoples spelling and grammar, by saying stuff like:

"Ow. That grammar hurt my stummy."
"You don't have to wear a blindfold and type at the same time, you know."
"Why are you typing a string of letters and some numbers in between? Is this a math equation you want me to solve?"
"When did the contest of 'Who can type the fastest' begin?"

It's not going to kill you type like you care what people will read. Unless someone is threatening you with a .17 caliber semi-automatic aimed at your head, and telling you to type as fast as you can. Why exactly would they care, anyways?

Just use the shift key when you need to, and spell check every word you type.

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Ugh, Runescape. "selin ady pl8 42k wil tr8"? Okay, yeah, you need to type fast, but typn lyk dis makes you look like a 3-year-old who just found this shiny thing with fun buttons.


Also:



...

o.o

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collect package; save adorable cat; you're really gullible.

"To frame" and "to box" are already Webster-approved verbs. "To clock" is already part of the popular vernacular, though I don't think it was verbed from the noun describing a timepiece. "To game" is quickly gaining acceptance in the vernacular ("Those gamers gamed 'til they were sick of gaming..."), and "to window" is fairly common computing/developer jargon. I often use computer as a verb, e.g. "I've been computering all day," though I would never use it formally. And there's another word in your list that was verbed a loong time ago, but it's kind of, uh, unmentionable...

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Ooops. Sorry. My bad. That word kinda vanished in my eyes there. XD

Anyway, I'm probably one of the few people out there who defends people's right to chatspeak. Sure, it's annoying, but it's none of our business what they type like. Besides, the notion of "correct" grammar is pretty much an illusion. They are, in actuality, many different "registers" during which different grammatical rules tend to apply, and you'll notice that even highfalutin writers tend to speak more or less like everybody else. The register of writing and the register of speech are completely different.

...My grammar class needs to get out of my head. ><

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You look like you need a hug.
*hug*
There, now don't you feel better?

That's exactly what I thought.

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Toast paint.

TOAST PAINT!!

I wonder how long it took "to google" to become a verb.

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You look like you need a hug.
*hug*
There, now don't you feel better?

I think the founders of Google were the first to use it, they probably used it in some garage when they were creating it.

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You've probably figured this out already, but that's been a word for a while. And it doesn't mean "punching someone".

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"Explain to me how drowning them would not ruin their date."

Oh. Dag. Guess I forgot about that term. I feel very awkward.

And yet, that brings me to the fact that the large amount of phrases and words that can also be taken in a sexual way. After every sentence someone says in school, some guy just has to think he's really cool and say:

"That's what she said."

<sarcasm> Oh MG! That was the most original and humorous joke that I've ever heard! You are so cool for saying that joke, I shall award you a trophy and shall hail you as master 4evaaaaaaaaaaar!</sarcasm>

It was funny at first, but now people just keep saying it, which metaphorically causes the joke to get stabbed each time someone says the joke. And once the joke is dead, nobody is going to think it's funny anymore, cause nobody think something dying is funny...except for maybe the killers.

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That's what she said.




I never really minded the jokes, nor hated them. The Office makes them hilarious, though.