I'm not a maniac about proper grammar, but I've got a couple of pet peeves. I don't like ending a sentence in a preposition, I do consider people who don't know when to use your or you're complete and utter idiots, and I can't STAND it when people say "So" at the end of a sentence. Lately I'm seeing it crop up a lot on television, as if it passes as actual, acceptable dialogue! I can understand it on reality tv - like, for example, tonight this woman on Beauty and the Geek said, "I'll NEVER milk a cow again. It's disgusting, AND I don't even drink milk. So." I guess it's only a matter of time until they ask a bunch of bikini models to milk a cow. But last night I counted four instances of sentences ending in "So" on the Gilmore Girls! The Gilmore Girls! A model of snappy, smart, quick and clever dialogue!
The most insidious aspect of this So-business is that it implies "Insert carefully reasoned thought here" while sparing the speaker of actually carefully reasoning. I like ending sentences in Arg! ARG!
9 months ago
10 comments:
I've noticed that too! Sometimes I catch myself pausing expecting them to continue talking. Julie and I have two others that bug us and we try to correct each other when we slip and say them: "got" and "up". I got to go... I got three things... Got milk? Put up your toys. Wait up for me. I need to put up the picture.
Those two simple words seem to have replaced quite a few words recently. Put away your toys. Wait for me. I need to hang the picture. I need to go... I bought three things... Do we have any milk?
I used to think it was a regional Hoosier-speak problem, but I hear it more often in national television and often times from educated people. It's good to know that someone else is noticing it too.
I believe the exact opposite. I'm a firm supporter of slang/colloquialism/ebonics, whatever you want to call it. I like the idea that language is a living thing. knowhutumsayin?
Don't know 'bout you but I'm fixin' to up and get me some unsweet tea.
It's mostly only southernisms that get me but poor grammar is a bugaboo for me. In Lym's line of work its a different deal but in the world I work, if you can't articulate your ideas well, using proper language, people will stop listening to you. And please, god, let that never happen to me.....
I know, riiiight?
wait a minute... :)
I think I'm sort of in the middle when it comes to talkin' purty. I will admit that I am just as guilty as the next guy when it comes to speaking Amer'can -- oh boy can I ever dangle a preposition! However, it just makes me want to rip my ears off when people say "on accident," rather than "by accident." Also, WTF does "I could care less" mean? You could? Well...who gives a cradoodle? I COULDN'T care less if you could care less.
Oh, and BTW -- not only has Gilmore Girls sunk to insanely new murky depths when it comes to quality, they have always adopted a slangy, pseudo pop manner of speaking, snappy though it may be. It may not be the best model for good grammar on the TV.
Y'all, I'm outtie!
PEACE!
I KNOW! Right? "I could care less..." it's like, do they KNOW what they're saying? Are "they" even LISTENING?
Re: Gilmore Girls, above all, they're verbose, so I find I just find it so strange they'd take the "So..." cop-out.
Hey, Kathy - what do you do for a living?
I think everyone has their own particular grammatical obsession that other people are always transgressing.
For a while, the one that always vexed me was "we did pretty good."
Uh, y'meant... pretty well?
But overall, I've learn to love the bastardization of language, and especially the Buffy-ization of our language.
Now, make with the funny!
Hey K--I read other people's blogs and make random smart ass remarks...
Professionally, I'm an epidemiologist. But that's just how I support my knitting/music/makeup/jewelry/family obsessions. I go on and on relentlessly about crap over at http://movieswiththemullens.blogspot.com Come say hi!
Can you imagine that my shameless cousin Lyman hasn't put a link to my blog on his page?
The "so" thing is indicative of a lazy mind. Finish your sentence dammit. Don't make me do it for you. I have better things to do. I'm fine with bad grammer and I love slang, but finish your own thoughts.
'nuff said.
"You remember Jim? Well, he's feeling so so."
"My heart aches so!"
"You can get me some fish? Make it so!"
"I like burnt toast and it has always been so."
these are acceptable. not so?
We are speaking only about usages of so meaning, "for this or that reason; hence; therefore: She is ill, and so cannot come to the party," but where the reason is not given, and the listener is intended to fill in the missing details (kind of like a Seinfeld, yada-yada-yada).
Idiomatic, adjective and pronoun uses are fine, even at the end of sentences, IMO.
so-so isn't even the same word, and, written properly, is hyphenated. :-P
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