[TR] needs repaired

[Greg Lemon]

Thanks Terry,

Well put, language is an arbitrary convention, as long as we agree and
understand what it means, it works.  The advent of cell phones and social
media has many more people using the written form of the English language
to communicate, using shorthand statements and writing how they speak.
Although it took me a while to get used to it, "my bad" from pick up
basketball is another example of one of those things that may grate on the
nerves, but you know what it means.

If you want to criticize grammar used in texts, social media, email, and
advertisements posted by greasy gear heads more power to you, but you are
fighting a battle that was lost long ago.

Greg Lemon
TR250

On Mon, Jan 27, 2020, 4:19 PM TERRY SMITH <terryrs at comcast.net> wrote:

> For what it's worth, there are three types of grammar, maybe more now.
> One:  prescriptive.  Two:  descriptive.  Three:  Transformational.
>
> Sister Eloise with the stick was decidedly prescriptive.  Language "must"
> adhere.
>
> Trouble is, language is constantly evolving.  Sentence subjects are no
> longer as gender specific.  It's now okay to write lite instead of light.
> Descriptive grammar is how people actually use it.  Hence it's not
> inappropriate to use the term "needs restored."
>
> Transformational grammar is the study of language that takes it back to
> when it is first acquired as an infant.  Children "babble" in Chinese long
> before they actually start speaking Chinese.  Deep structure is the term
> used for when a thought first becomes language and helps describe when
> ellipses remove words, yet we still understand the meaning:  "Needs [to be]
> restored like that one."
>
> I taught high school English for several years and my specialty was
> teaching remedial writing to kids who had failed at that hands of English
> Nazis all through school.  It took some major doing to get them to relax
> enough with language to realize that spelling, for instance, comes to
> English words from an anarchy of imported foreign languages, so don't sweat
> that you haven't memorized the difference between night and knight.
>
> Obligatory Triumph content:  "I put fluif in my Triumf."
>
> On January 27, 2020 at 4:05 PM JOE CURRY <spitlist at cox.net> wrote:
>
> I resemble that remark!  :)
>
>
> On January 27, 2020 at 1:52 PM Ron L'Herault <lherault at verizon.net>
> wrote:
>
> Warning:   This is not Triumph related.
>
>
>
> I’m an uptight New Englander who was taught English grammar by nuns who
> had sticks.  8-).     Face Book, was the first place I’d seen this usage.
> Now it appears in a mailing list message.
>
> “Needs Restored like that one.”
>
> ---------------------------------
>
> I look at that and first wonder, needs restored what?   Then deep in the
> recesses of my mind, I hear Sister Thomasina saying  “You will write ‘needs
> to be restored’ 100 times on the blackboard. When you are done, you will
> write ‘needs restoration’ 100 times as well.”
>
>
>
> So, since it is not a Triumph question, if people want to answer
> privately, super.   Do you use this sentence construction habitually?  In
> what part of the country do you live?  I was not an English major. I’m
> definitely not a great writer and don’t spell everything correctly, but I’m
> extremely curious to find out the extent of the usage and this is a nice
> friendly group who may be able to help me.
>
>
>
> Let’s hear it for fluif.
>
>
>
> Ron L’Herault
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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