The overriding misuse of the word literally has forced the OED to concede that it is acceptable to use the word for emphasis rather than it's conventional meaning. How do we feel about this? Is it just language evolving, or should we make a stand?
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices...stand-by-the-misuse-of-literally-8763533.html Interesting off topic topic this.
We were discussing our repairs policy at work the other day. I (as the warehouse manager) explained it was simple enough. If you can fix it with what you've got already then do it. If not ask them to buy what you need. If they won't let you have what you need, then burn the broken thing so they can't find it and complain it hasn't been fixed. In this case the OED has gone the wrong way, they couldn't fix the bad usage with what they had, and they couldn't really ask for anything to correct it, so they should have burnt everybody that was using it incorrectly.
I'm the only person I know who, on the rare occasion where it is necessary, will "send a text" rather than just "text". Has the OED now given in here as well and listed text as a verb? A whole new tense has been adopted into the English language over the last few years; the present continuous. How often do you you hear someone say "I am liking this"? It is unstoppable though, as you suggest, the language evolving. As DT always tells us, everything is in a permanent state of flux. It is pointless fighting it, you will lose, count me in Stroller.
However, there is one word that is literally so versatile it can be anything you want it to be... http://justin.justnet.com.au/rudestuff/uses-of-the-word-****.html
The prime function of language is for people to communicate with each other, if both parties understand each other then, in my opinion, there isn't too much of a problem. I suppose it's quite democratic in a way, a tipping point has been reached with the majority which has forced the Executive (The OED on this occasion) in to carrying out the will of the people. I think that it is an evolution, as it has done since year dot....The way we speak & sound now is noticeably different to just 30 odd years ago, and the very old english spoken by the Anglo Saxons sounds like a Scandinavian language to me!!
Of course, there are extremes... [video=youtube;tQWPR9TM0Gk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQWPR9TM0Gk[/video]
Awesome discussion, I'm literally glued to my screen. I would of posted quicker, but I was busy texting Radio 4, isn't it?
Amongst the things that have annoyed my mum since she moved up here is the fact the Scots call a bin a bucket. Now when the bin consists of a carrier bag hanging on a door handle in the kitchen area and someone tells you that you just put the teabags in the bucket after you're done with them there's a problem. Another one is that rather than saying something needs doing, or needs to be done they just say something needs done. That also annoys my mum, especially when part of her work is to write press releases for the Scottish government to explain the stats she's produced about various NHS projects. A few weeks ago she wrote one and sent it to other people in the department to make sure they were happy with the content and somebody "corrected" her by changing it to say something "needs done" and left her name at the bottom of the release. Even for myself at work that's a problem, working as a warehouse manager it's my responsibility if something isn't made or fixed before we next need it. The amount of times I come in to find a jobs list from staff the previous day that's not written in full sentences and combines jobs that have been done with jobs that still need doing and they're completely indistinguishable from each other.
This one gets me too Roller. If to text is to be used as a verb it should at least have tenses. My kids will say 'I text him' rather than 'I texted him' - or are they saying texed?
Yes the "needs done" would drive me potty too, however you could argue that if the target audience is Scots who find that the term is acceptable that it is OK (just!). I think that this is down to various types of communication, in any number of situations, where there are differing degrees of formality. Most people communicate differently when they speak to how they would write, and even within written formats there are degrees of informality. A lot of people will also change the idiolect that they use depending on with whom they are speaking.
