(no subject)

[rocknload]

AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH.Summary: speak the way you learned in high school English, or else you sound like a "chimp." I couldn't even read it anymore when I got to the part about using the subjunctive mood correctly, because seriously? Who the hell even notices the subjunctive mood in English anymore?

These are the things that darken my day.

Comments

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

WHAT IS A DIALECT. The only options here are speaking RIGHT and speaking WRONG.

[pretzelcoatl.livejournal.com]

I imagine her thoughts on AAVE are delicious.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

Considering the description of the "inner-city" woman speaking "haughtily..."

One thing I love about linguistics is that not considering AAVE (and lots of other dialects of English) a legitimate dialect is considered completely insane. ... Wow, what an awkward sentence, there.

[theeternalmind.livejournal.com]

Yeah, 'cuz how dare anyone from the INNER CITY try to talk like they's edumacated! That sorts of talks is for college graduate folks, i.e. rich folks, 'cuz ain't no INNER CITY foo' gonna afford COLLEGE!

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

And if the usage was unusual for her, I think it's really goddamn likely that she chose to say it that way because she was talking to him. Y'know, the grammar Nazi.

[theeternalmind.livejournal.com]

...You know, I actually assumed the example that dude was hypothetical (and thus ign'ant), but your comment and looking at the way it was worded again made me realize that it might well have actually happened to him. In which case, a) how would he know how literate or not she was, and b) how much of a jerk was he being to prompt a response like that? But yeah, agreeing that if this actually occurred, she might have talked like that because of her audience. Who knows, we don't know the rest of the context here.