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Intern_8033 wrote:Hi folks,

5. Passive voice is totally boojwa and will not be tolerated.

Were you trying to be postmodern and funny by using the passive voice in this sentence? If so, you should have included a smiley to let us all know.

You could have re-cast this sentence (as an exclamation) to show how easy it is to use the active voice: "Damn! I will not tolerate your using the passive voice!"

While we're at it, I would like to mention a profound hatred I have developed for the word "proactive." This utterly unnecessary word is meant to replace the word "active," but only when the speaker wants it to be more special.

The word has no other useful forms (i.e. "I'll proact on that suggestion, Bob," or "The cat has been proacting strangely since he ate those mushrooms," or "What sort of proaction will the committee reccommend?" or "We've scheduled a lot of sun-deck proactivities for our senior cruise passengers."), and it is unnecessary and retarded-sounding.

It's a bullshit word, and I'll bet the Pro Lifers or MADD or PMRC or some other right wing lifestyle-crushing busybody crankbites came up with it.

And what's wrong with the verb "to burgle?" When did that become "to burglarize?" Do plumbers plumberize? When did "making priorities" become "prioritize?" And how come people say "utilize" when they really mean "use?"

Disrespect is not a verb. One can be equally "street" and speak english: "I will fuck you up if you show me disrespect again."

Don't get me started on nauseous/nauseated.

Really, the English language is beautiful if given a chance. It is almost limitlessly expressive and has a perfect, real, non-right-wing word for almost every purpose. It doesn't need any help from those who would "improve" it. Remember the Tribune's attempt at streamlining the language? ("The frate elevator is strate thru those doors, about four feet in hite," he laffed, before kissing his naybor, his new luv, on the lips.) They were right-wingers.

Speak english, crush the right wing -- it's that simple.

steve (1 for 2 with a run scored)

And while I'm at it, interns are people. They are enjoying an internship. I do not like the use of the verb "to intern," because I believe it is obfuscatory. You are not really "interning," you are "sweeping up" or "changing the trash can liners" or "observing a session" or "helping craft the definitive aesthetic statement of our times." In other words, there is almost always something specific you could say about what you are doing rather than using the made-up verb: "I was interning..." If you want, you could say, "I held an internship at White Goose for a semester." or "I learned about alternate cocaine delivery systems as an intern under Stevie Nicks this year."

Speak plain English. It's good for you.
-steve

I disagree.

One wonderful thing about the English language is that nouns can become verbs and be understandable. Granted, the clever beat this to death. It can be useful, however, as a convenient shortcut or the very occasional hint at humor.

Want an example? Popular use has shortened the phrase 'Rock and Roll' to 'rock'. While there are subtleties between the two for those in the know, if I described a band as a rock band, you get some idea of what I mean. This noun form is acceptable as a verb (i.e. "The J Geils band rocked the House of Blues last night, despite very sparse audience attendance."). It's lazy music criticism, but it works.

Intern follows the same rules. "To work" implies pay. You may tell me that you worked at KFC for three weeks and they still haven't paid you. I understand why you're mad. You may tell me that you volunteered at KFC for three weeks and they still haven't paid you. I stare at you, puzzled. Interning is neither of these. The different tasks described in the example were not done as work or specifically as a volunteer. It's useful to have a verb that makes this distinction. One may find it stylistically uninviting, but that's a long way from poor grammar.

Business consultants brought proactive into popular use along with "empower" (and all of its forms) and "low hanging fruit". For the record, this last phrase describes neither a hate crime nor my nuts. It's the "easy stuff" in project management.

What about interns who do not have Social Security numbers? Are they not welcome in this forum?

Oh, and I almost forgot:



= Justin, pro intern

Justin from Queens wrote:I disagree.

One wonderful thing about the English language is that nouns can become verbs and be understandable. Granted, the clever beat this to death. It can be useful, however, as a convenient shortcut or the very occasional hint at humor.

Want an example? Popular use has shortened the phrase 'Rock and Roll' to 'rock'. While there are subtleties between the two for those in the know, if I described a band as a rock band, you get some idea of what I mean. This noun form is acceptable as a verb (i.e. "The J Geils band rocked the House of Blues last night, despite very sparse audience attendance."). It's lazy music criticism, but it works.

Dude, to rock is a verb and has always been a verb: the wind rocked the cradle, the waves rocked the ship, the ship rolled on the sea, the bluesman and his woman rocked and rolled all night... this is not a linguistic transformation at all. The transformation was turning the two verbs (rock and roll) into the adjective "rock and roll." You didn't think they were talking about a stone and a muffin, did you?

I think making nouns into verbs is pretty bad, unless you use proper nouns: "We are going to Dom DeLouise the buffet," "Novotny will Rickles the groom at the dinner next week," "Someone Courtneyed all over the toilet seat."

I appreciate that there are dialects of english, and I enjoy regional pronunciations and idiom. What I don't like are stupid words being inserted into the lexicon by fiat, and especially by right-wingers.

bestes,
-steve

Of all the things to blame on right-wingers, it seems like language would be one of the last. I would never compare the annoyance of a word like "proactive" (which I bet came from some management-seminar-guru) to the gradual destruction brought forth by “Ebonics”, “Spangish” and whatever the heck it is that junior-high schoolgirls speak in the malls. Compare large groups of overwhelmingly liberal people constantly brutalizing our language to some smarmy loser in a suit coughing up a cliché buzzword. Not even close, in my opinion. “KnowWhatI’mSayin’?”

You guys are all so post-ironic. It's killing me.

russ

angry planet wrote:Of all the things to blame on right-wingers, it seems like language would be one of the last. I would never compare the annoyance of a word like "proactive" (which I bet came from some management-seminar-guru) to the gradual destruction brought forth by “Ebonics”, “Spangish” and whatever the heck it is that junior-high schoolgirls speak in the malls. Compare large groups of overwhelmingly liberal people constantly brutalizing our language to some smarmy loser in a suit coughing up a cliché buzzword. Not even close, in my opinion. “KnowWhatI’mSayin’?”

I have no hatred of English incorporating common conversational language even from other countries or insular populations of natives. This is how our language blossomed to include much of its beauty. I wish Y'all was in regular use by Northerners, for example, as it is a beautiful word which serves a purpose in our language. I dislike people imposing on the language by making up words as part of a power structure or mis-using words to the extent that their proper use is impossible without misunderstanding ("penultimate," for example, or "quintessence," or even "hopefully"). I don't like any of the ridiculous words used by Scientology, for example, and I don't like politicians and pundits using invented fancypants words to replace serviceable and often more suitable ones. "Disingenuous," for example, when one means "dishonest" or "full of shit."

-steve

"strategery"

I like cats.