So all these pedants who correct posters grammar

[MamaMaiasaura]

Seen posters correcting grammar on here, do they do so in RL situations?

Ok, maybe not the RP... it depends where regional accent slides into dialect, doesn't it?

But lots of words aren't there to make semantic sense -they're there to contextualise, to set a scene, to indicate relative formality and informality, etc. It's a phatic usage, in a way, and I don't think a quote from the Today programme with rent-a-ranters is terribly good evidence.

Outright abusive comments take less time and a far less "up ones own arse".

Are not a. Bloody phone/fingers/etc

Well, I'd say accent and dialect are parallel, tbh - accent relating solely to phonetics, and dialect to grammar, syntax, vocab, etc. So you can speak Geordie dialect with a Scouse accent (it just sounds really weird).

Kudos on the acute accent though, Maiasaura!

Trust me, it wasn't deliberate .

Well, Shelly, I am an English teacher and I say starting a sentence with "so" is ok. Maybe not in a formal essay, but in speech and informal writing e.g. mumsnet.

It is called a discourse marker. They are common.

But making the choice not to use them is a nice choice to have. Some people (no idea if this applies to posters here or not!) have no choice, because they cannot express themselves in any other way. Being able to choose to express yourself differently in different contexts gives you power. Language is power.

returning to "so" - anything repeated A Lot in conversation gets to sound odd/annoying, such as the way politicians have taken to using the interviewer's name again and again in responding. That does make it annoying, and you'd be reasonable in wanting it to stop, but it doesn't make it "incorrect" or "nonsensical" English.

Sorry, that was 'choice not to use abusive comments' not 'choice not to use discursive markers'

I quite employing them when I deem it suitable.

The word 'Like' springs to mind habbibu -
I would argue that in all but very specific linguistic subcultures, repeated use of 'like' makes your language like really hard to like, understand. You get me?

Discourse marker! that's it - could not remember the phrase.

yy, 3 not sure we're disagreeing - just a very small technical diff. RP really isn't an accent used anywhere I've lived (except St Andrews!) so it's not something I consider when thinking about a standard.

I don't think a quote from the Today programme with rent-a-ranters is terribly good evidence.

You're right, of course but I was using it to demonstrate that it's annoying to others as well as to me, that's all.

I apologise for being an arse - I appear to have had too much wine and have now become rather annoying and rude.

I quite like employing them.

Can you tell I'm knackered? Sleep I think.

oh, x-post, 3 - ignore me. I agree totally. And yes, "like" and "y'know" - it's overuse, not use per se that's the problem.

how odd - now we're all using much more standard English.

The people who get uptight about correct usage in everyday life tend to be the ones who know nothing about language and haven't studied it beyond "Eats Shoots and Leaves".

The point of language is primarily to communicate. Maybe it irritates people when their teenager says "like" every second word, but it doesn't hinder communication so it's really not that big a deal.

Language is evolving, there's no point in getting annoyed by the way it changes - many of the things we class as mistakes now will be in common usage in 100 years. If language had never changed, we'd still speaketh liketh so.

Rite bedtime for me innit. Hope I get alot of sleep. So u no I should of stopped mning and gone to sleep already x nite peeps

Fair enough, Shelly. I just think it's useful to accept that there's a different between "bloody annoying" and "incorrect" . I have many many bete noires about usage, but mostly they are my problem, and I have to view them in the same way as people's clothes or cars, etc - a matter of taste.

But I reckon 'like' is not appropriate in the majority of socail situations - including MN. And if a poster here was using it to the extent that it affected their meaning (and assuming they were not in Mental Health wanting to kill themselves or something awful) I might gently correct them. I never have, mind you, but I might.

Interesting x-post, 3inABIRDsnest. I don't find it difficult to understand people who say "like" and "y'know" at all.

Amen, yellow. It bugs me that David Crystal's riposte to Truss's book is barely known.

Some things are 'incorrect'. That Vicky Pollard / Tony Blair sketch was funny because of the 'incorrectness' of him using an inappropriate register.