GRcade

Y'all don't like these words? Yikes!

Can we also add the following please?:

Super
Super duper
Jump in

There’s a whole list of business buzzwords that are more annoying than either. ‘Deep dive’ anyone? ‘Horizon scanning’?

But I use y’all quite frequently to differentiate between plural and singular ‘you’, so yikes it is. Especially ‘hard yikes’.

One term i don't like is how the word 'drop' is now used to describe a song/movie/something else that has just come out.

You don't 'drop' them, they are released, if you dropped them you'd have to pick them up again afterwards.

The whole thing gets a massive yikes from me.

I don't understand any of this.

I dislike business speak as it's usually euphemistic nonsense used to conceal undesirable tasks or mandates, but apart from that it's all good.

Prescriptivism is bad y'all.

At the risk of being prescriptive, is disliking certain words inherently prescriptivist? I haven't seen anyone say "yikes" isn't valid English, just that they find it annoying.

I don't get all the hate either though. "Y'all" is just a normal Americanism and "yikes" can be a very funny dismissive when used properly.

Karl_ wrote:At the risk of being prescriptive, is disliking certain words inherently prescriptivist? I haven't seen anyone say "yikes" isn't valid English, just that they find it annoying.

I don't get all the hate either though. "Y'all" is just a normal Americanism and "yikes" can be a very funny dismissive when used properly.

I always thought of prescriptivism as a resistance to language change and belief in a 'proper' use of language.

"[Prescriptivism is the] policy of describing languages as we would like them to be, rather than as we find them.

How Language Works

Criticism of expanding vocabulary is very much a part of the viewpoint. I don't think it's a stretch to apply it here.

Fair enough!

Tafdolphin wrote:Prescriptivism is bad

Don't you live in France

Y'all is definitely annoying.

Especially Y'all Balgruuf.

If you use y'all and you aren't from America, this is NOT ok smh

OrangeRKN wrote:

Tafdolphin wrote:Prescriptivism is bad

Don't you live in France

I do.

EDIT: If this is an Academie Francais reference then...urgh. strawberry float those guys.

Tafdolphin wrote:

OrangeRKN wrote:

Tafdolphin wrote:Prescriptivism is bad

Don't you live in France

I do.

EDIT: If this is an Academie Francais reference then...urgh. strawberry float those guys.

It was

Can't agree with the blanket "prescriptivism is bad" though. While language evolves and attempting to keep it entirely static is folly, a degree of prescriptivism is vital. A common, mutual understanding of language is an essential underpinning of the rule of law.

Prescriptivism is also useful in preserving written history and its understanding, and promoting clarity and precision in meaning in areas where those aspects very important and highly valued, such as the sciences.

Basically, there are use cases in which precise and codified language is useful if not essential.

Neither

The correct answer is headed. Because people including journalists use it incorrectly all the time and it makes me want to jump out of a window

"Pokémon is headed to switch"

HEADING

@OR: What's considered precise/clear technical language has changed with usage through the centuries too though. I'm not saying "dictionaries bad" or that no-one can be criticised for using incorrect/unclear words, but arguments from the dictionary against popular usage are almost always on the wrong side of history IMO.

Karl_ wrote:@OR: What's considered precise/clear technical language has changed with usage through the centuries too though. I'm not saying "dictionaries bad" or that no-one can be criticised for using incorrect/unclear words, but arguments from the dictionary against popular usage are almost always on the wrong side of history IMO.

Yeah, this is pretty much where I am with it all.

I suppose you could say I was referring to practical prescriptivism being bad rather than historic, or theoretical, prescriptivism.

Karl_ wrote:@OR: What's considered precise/clear technical language has changed with usage through the centuries too though. I'm not saying "dictionaries bad" or that no-one can be criticised for using incorrect/unclear words, but arguments from the dictionary against popular usage are almost always on the wrong side of history IMO.

u iz rite ov corse we kin rite howeva we wunt n it dunt mater cuz der r no reel roolz

I think we'd agree then that some degree of prescriptivism is good and useful, but extreme prescriptivism is bad.

Also yikes is genuinely annoying, but through overuse more than anything inherent

Really the only person I know who use “Yikes” is Shaggy.

And he’s a fictional character.

Doesn't Shaggy say zoiks/zoinks?

"Like, zoiks/zoinks let's get outta here Scoobs!"