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Language Learning Orthodoxy You Ignore | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6581 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 105 of 116 11 December 2014 at 6:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I still have a few vestiges of language conservatism that I'm trying to shed. It's mostly in writing, though. Intellectually, I think the Swedish word "juice" ought to be spelled, as some people spell it, "jos". When I have to write the word, I hesitate. "Jos" looks ridiculous to my poor brain, but I want to think it looks great. It's a little struggle every time I have to write the word.
In the spoken language, however, I have fewer problems. I pride myself on being able to hear "I couldn't care less" without cringeing, and one day I might even be able to use the expression myself without making a conscious effort. The same goes for "literally" being used to mean "figuratively". I mean, if literature isn't literal, we clearly need to change the meaning of one of those words, and some people are brave enough to be the vanguard of that movement. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4843 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 106 of 116 11 December 2014 at 8:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'm not sure if I got lost in your little game of sarcasm, but you are aware that "I couldn't care less" is the correct version of this idiom, aren't you? "I could care less", however, is depraved of any meaning and sense. If you could care less than you actually do, you're still caring about the matter about which you meant to say that you don't care about it. Edited by Josquin on 11 December 2014 at 8:33pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4908 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 107 of 116 11 December 2014 at 11:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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[rant]In my limited experience, people who start a sentence with "I literally... " usually have something stupid or inane to say, so it's not surprising they don't understand the literal meaning of the word literal. I generally accept new idioms or new uses of old idioms, but when they actually don't make sense, I rage inwardly.[/rant]
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| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4771 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 108 of 116 11 December 2014 at 11:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I wonder if people got this annoyed back when "really" started to get used as a subjective intensifier rather than a marker of objective reality. Ditto for "truly" denoting something that isn't indisputable truth. Heck, even the most neutral-sounding intensifier "very" originally started out as a marker of truth (etymologically related to "veritable", "veracious" and the French "vrai"). Looks like, at least in English, the desire to exaggerate consistently outweighs the demand for a word unequivocally denoting that one means exactly what one says. Not even exaggerating here, this whole thing quite literally makes my blood boil, I s**t you not ;)
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| chokofingrz Pentaglot Senior Member England Joined 5188 days ago 241 posts - 430 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Japanese, Catalan, Luxembourgish | Message 109 of 116 12 December 2014 at 1:03am | IP Logged | |||||
Knowing that the OED officially acknowledged the construction you describe as acceptable last year, my eyes literally popped out of my head when I read your post! :p 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| chiara-sai Triglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3707 days ago 54 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French Studies: German, Japanese | Message 110 of 116 12 December 2014 at 3:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
‘I couldn’t care less’ is also a lie, because I think most people could care less when they claim that they couldn’t. Indeed the least you care about it the least likely you may be to even bothered saying that you do not care about it, and saying ‘could’ instead of ‘couldn’t’ saves you one syllable which means you’ll be wasting less time talking about something you do not care about. I know I’m being a bit of a devil’s advocate here, but I think in the end people should just accept that human language is often not supposed to be interpreted literally. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4908 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 111 of 116 12 December 2014 at 3:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
Never? (Begin endless loop) Edited by Jeffers on 12 December 2014 at 3:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6581 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 112 of 116 12 December 2014 at 8:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
Haha, typo, or Freudian slip, maybe. Yes, of course I meant "I could care less". I love that expression. I always imagine there's a little "… but it wouldn't be easy" or something like that. "I couldn't care less", on the other hand, is just dull and unimaginative. Language at its worst. What's the point of having a set expression if it just means what the words mean? It's like saying "You shouldn't say 'pardon my French' unless you're actually speaking French. The correct expression is 'pardon my curse'". People who get upset about "I could care less" are taking all the joy out of language. Edited by Ari on 12 December 2014 at 8:28pm 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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