Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
 
USM Forum -- Message Board -> AAUP-USM MESSAGE BOARD -> Full funding for education? It may be too late
Post Info TOPIC: Full funding for education? It may be too late
mal

Date:
RE: Full funding for education? It may be too late
Permalink Closed

make that the word "reporter's", not "students"

__________________
LVN

Date:
Permalink Closed

Mr. Lott, somewhere in the distant past the members of this board EXCORIATED people who refer to themselves in the third person. A word to the wise . . .

__________________
mal

Date:
Permalink Closed

Thanks for the words of wisdom....good thing I eventually identified myself, eh?

__________________
David Johnson

Date:
RE: RE: Full funding for education? It may be too
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: mal
"Thanks for the words of wisdom....good thing I eventually identified myself, eh?"


Mal,

I am delighted to know you have identified yourself. As I am the one who started this silliness, it is for me to apologize to you. Truly, it was intended as tongue-in-cheek. As you are no doubt aware, there is much skepticism surrounding the ability, if not the willingness, of our legislature to do the painful things that it will most likely take in order to fund education, human services, medicaid and many other services that many of us consider to be critical to a healthy and educated population. I should not have extended that skepticism onto you, and I sincerely ask your forgiveness for having done so.

As for being misquoted by newspapers, I, too, can say I have experienced that little phenomenon firsthand. I've also been occasionally misquoted on this board. I've often said, even recently on this board, that we need not all agree for things to move forward. Even in disagreement, we need not be always disagreeable -- a sentiment that I think is reflected in your response if not stated outright.

So, I appreciate that you have posted your email address and your cell phone number. If I have occasion to question something legislatively, it is good to know that a public servant is willing to make himself available. I won't wear out the welcome mat on it -- rest assured.

The MS legislature faces some very hard decisions in the days to come. I hear what you are saying regarding administrative savings in order to have more funds go to the classroom. What we all know, however, is that expenses are a relatively finite number and you can't reduce them past zero. Revenues, on the other hand, may be an area where enhancement can take place. This state is in a mess for which I'm sure you and your present colleagues are not totally accountable. Getting us out of it will take more than one session. But, I hope you will lead the charge to begin doing the real work of state government. Cutting PLADs from Medicaid was a clear mistake last year. I don't know how you voted regarding it. I hope the legislature will be more thougtful this year and not just take the governor's word as gospel.

Thank you again for your thoughtful response. I hope to have the opportunity to meet you someday in the not too distant future.

Best regards,
DJ

__________________
Malapropism

Date:
RE: Full funding for education? It may be too late
Permalink Closed

Life is simply too funny sometimes.  At this point, I am assuming that "mal" as used by Mike Lott refers to his initials.  As his posts are far more important than mine, I will use my full board name in the future so that there will be no confusion.  For the record, Mike Lott (the new "mal") does not serve on a Nom d'aplomb committee with Invictus and Miss Information.


Mike Lott, welcome to the website community.


Malapropism (the old "Mal")



__________________
Mr. Wonderful

Date:
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: Malapropism
"Life is simply too funny sometimes.  At this point, I am assuming that "mal" as used by Mike Lott refers to his initials.  As his posts are far more important than mine, I will use my full board name in the future so that there will be no confusion.  For the record, Mike Lott (the new "mal") does not serve on a Nom d'aplomb committee with Invictus and Miss Information. Mike Lott, welcome to the website community. Malapropism (the old "Mal")"
Well, Malapropism, we're sure glad you cleared that up for us! The Mr. Wonderful Organization's telephone bank was abuzz last night trying to solve the puzzle. And, Mike Lott, the entire Mr. Wonderful Organization is also pleased to welcome you to this message board community. Go Panthers!

__________________
stinky cheese man

Date:
Permalink Closed

to all of your grammar police out there--i recommend you look at Robin Lakoff's book, Talking Power:  The Politics of Language, specifically chapter 15--Language Bosses.  To offer a brief quote:  "Until recently Latinizing grammars tried to make English follow the model of Latin, so that the most correct English was defined as that which was most like Latin.  Of course, in many ways English cannot be made to imitate Latin:  we have only the most vestigial case system left and nothing like the commplex verbal conjugations of Latin.  But pedants still tried to impost Latin rules on English.  It is for this reason that we are warned against ending sentences with prepositions or splitting infinitives."  (p. 290)

__________________
David Johnson

Date:
RE: RE: Full funding for education? It may be too
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: stinky cheese man
"to all of your grammar police out there--i recommend you look at Robin Lakoff's book, Talking Power:  The Politics of Language, specifically chapter 15--Language Bosses.  To offer a brief quote:  "Until recently Latinizing grammars tried to make English follow the model of Latin, so that the most correct English was defined as that which was most like Latin.  Of course, in many ways English cannot be made to imitate Latin:  we have only the most vestigial case system left and nothing like the commplex verbal conjugations of Latin.  But pedants still tried to impost Latin rules on English.  It is for this reason that we are warned against ending sentences with prepositions or splitting infinitives."  (p. 290)"


Sounds like a real barn-burner, SCM. I've already made my apologies to the representative.

__________________
stinky cheese man

Date:
RE: Full funding for education? It may be too late
Permalink Closed

it's truly an interesting read if you're interested in language and its political consequences.

__________________
Osmosis Joe

Date:
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: stinky cheese man
"it's truly an interesting read if you're interested in language and its political consequences."
I have two people in my family with graduate degrees in the origins of language.  I am fascinated by it although I only live vicariously through their work. 

__________________
David Johnson

Date:
RE: RE: Full funding for education? It may be too
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: stinky cheese man
"it's truly an interesting read if you're interested in language and its political consequences."


Oh, I'm sure it is, SCM. Unfortunately, my reading list has had to be rather restrictive of late in terms of pleasure reading due to the amount of reading required for graduate degrees.

I think we could easily see that I was being sarcastic in my previous comment. Reminds me of someone (you) who had his shorts in a pretty good knot over Kevin Walters' use of language in a recent HA article.

I won't pick on language again, Stinky. Not even in a lame effort to inject a little levity into the place. Can we have a truce?

__________________
stinky cheese man

Date:
RE: Full funding for education? It may be too late
Permalink Closed

david--i saw your sarcasm.  as a graduate student, i knew you have to prioritize your reading.  i still enforce those latin rules when i read student papers however. 

__________________
David Johnson

Date:
RE: RE: Full funding for education? It may be too
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: stinky cheese man
"david--i saw your sarcasm.  as a graduate student, i knew you have to prioritize your reading.  i still enforce those latin rules when i read student papers however.  "


This post is NOT sarcasm, SCM. I don't know who you are, but I'll buy if you want to go for coffee. Thank GOD for a prof who enforces the rules when reading papers. As a GA, I've had to read some that just made me want to run to the toilet.

None of us is perfect, and I'm sure I've made my share of grammatical violations. As a very non-traditionally-aged student, I lose heart sometimes when I see how the next generation writes. Why is it important that we use standard english? Because ideas get lost when we don't. I know some fairly smart students otherwise whose credibility will be sorely questioned when they write reports for work, simply because they don't know a predicate from a pronoun.

My beef here is not so much the latin rules, SCM, though I think some of them are pretty important. My beef is the way we (not just at USM, but nationally) have "dumbed down" the educational system so that anyone with a pulse can have a degree. On another thread, someone stated the case that a 3.1 gpa will put you in the bottom half of your class. I'm willing to bet that isn't the case only at USM.

I thank the good Lord daily for Ms. Maxwell, my 7th grade English teacher, who taught us to diagram sentences and to avoid stranded prepositions and split infinitives. Of course, the rules sometimes can be bent and, in the interest of literature, even broken. But, I think Ms. Maxwell would agree with me that you have to know the rules before you earn the right to bend or to break them. If my personal statements to the four Ph.D. programs to which I have applied (three of them in the top 10 of my profession) pass muster, it will, at least partially, be to the credit of Ms. Maxwell and others like her who have encouraged this bone in my head about language.

The offer for coffee is a standing offer, SCM. You made my day with this post!

__________________
stinky cheese man

Date:
RE: Full funding for education? It may be too late
Permalink Closed

i had a prof whose pet peeve was "irregardless." woe be to the student using that in a paper.

__________________
David Johnson

Date:
RE: RE: Full funding for education? It may be too
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: stinky cheese man
"i had a prof whose pet peeve was "irregardless." woe be to the student using that in a paper."


Some of my favorites are verb forms of the noun "orientation." I especially like "orientated." Double negatives are another. Probably the most common error I see is disagreement of number between subject and predicate.

__________________
Word Hound

Date:
RE: RE: Full funding for education? It may be too late
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: stinky cheese man
"i had a prof whose pet peeve was "irregardless." woe be to the student using that in a paper."

Click below:


The Mavens' Word of the Day


 


 



__________________
Curmudgeon

Date:
RE: RE: RE: Full funding for education? It may be
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: David Johnson
"

Some of my favorites are verb forms of the noun "orientation." I especially like "orientated." Double negatives are another. Probably the most common error I see is disagreement of number between subject and predicate."


The British tend to say orientate as compared to orient. Both are correct.

__________________
David Johnson

Date:
RE: RE: RE: RE: Full funding for education? It may
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: Curmudgeon
"

The British tend to say orientate as compared to orient. Both are correct."


Irregardless of how the Brits say it, and the fact that it has now come to be accepted as correct, clearly this word was mis-formed from the noun form of the word. Of course, language is a living thing, and one can interpretate it how one chooses.

Try this link on for size:

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/orientate.html

__________________
Gnome Chompski

Date:
RE: RE: Full funding for education? It may be too late
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: stinky cheese man
" But pedants still tried to impost Latin rules on English.  It is for this reason that we are warned against ending sentences with prepositions or splitting infinitives."  (p. 290)"

Irrespective of the reason -- whether based on "deep structure" or mere capricious, arbitrary and antiquated convention -- language usage is a "marker" that communicates something about the one communicating.  I can chose to ignore conventional usage, but only at my peril.


I see it as analogous to the necktie I wear to work. I don't particularly like it, and I doubt that those who established the dress code for my employer were aware of the history of cravats; but whether I wear a tie, and what tie I wear, definitely colors the way I am perceived.


I guess I've been called worse than a pedant.



__________________
David Johnson

Date:
Permalink Closed

I studiously avoid neckties except for rare occasions. However, I have a collection of them, most older than the traditionally-aged population on campus. I keep them not out of sentiment nor any notion that the ones from the 70's and earlier may come back into style. I'm simply too lazy to throw them out.


__________________
Pet Peeve

Date:
RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Full funding for education? It may
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: David Johnson
" Irregardless ..."

Although I think you are simply trying to annoy me, I will bite (your head off).


From Merrium Webster:






"Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. Its fairly widespread use in speech called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that "there is no such word." There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead."



__________________
LVN

Date:
RE: Full funding for education? It may be too late
Permalink Closed

One of the current worst is "coronate" in place of "crown" -- who started that??

__________________
David Johnson

Date:
Permalink Closed

Yes, I was engaging in hyperbole and simply trying to annoy you. I'd have been more impressed if you'd bitten on "interpretate" instead of "irregardless." Irrespective of your biting, I preferred the earlier post from the maven who said, "If it is not a word, what is it? A ham sandwich?"

It's so nice to see folks having fun on this board occasionally.

__________________
Yes, Boss!

Date:
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: LVN
"One of the current worst is "coronate" in place of "crown" -- who started that??"
Shelby - when he coronated himself as king?

__________________
David Johnson

Date:
RE: RE: Full funding for education? It may be too
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: LVN
"One of the current worst is "coronate" in place of "crown" -- who started that??"


Coronate? CORONATE?!?! Just when you think it can't get worse!

__________________
Invictus

Date:
RE: Full funding for education? It may be too late
Permalink Closed

Since this has turned from a "see how fast we can fall all over ourselves welcoming a politician to the board" thread into a fun little gambol through the wilds of the "English" language, I'll offer up my pet peeve, which you can bet will be irritating USM employees for months to come:

"Accredidation" -- How most Miss'ippians mispronounce it, "irregardless" of what educational level they aspire to.

(Quick way to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition: append profanity to the end, as in "Can you tell me where you're going to, ?")

__________________
David Johnson

Date:
RE: RE: Full funding for education? It may be too
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: Invictus
"Since this has turned from a "see how fast we can fall all over ourselves welcoming a politician to the board" thread into a fun little gambol through the wilds of the "English" language, I'll offer up my pet peeve, which you can bet will be irritating USM employees for months to come:

"Accredidation" -- How most Miss'ippians mispronounce it, "irregardless" of what educational level they aspire to.

(Quick way to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition: append profanity to the end, as in "Can you tell me where you're going to, ?")"


Accredidation is clearly the bidness of SACS.

__________________
Invictus

Date:
RE: Full funding for education? It may be too late
Permalink Closed

And since I'm on a roll butchering the language, I'll share a story related to me by my semi-fictitious ex-brother-in-law, who earned his "Masters in Corrections" at Parchman. (Perhaps Dr. Cabana can verify this one...)

Some inmate had escaped from one of the camps & a posse of guards was assembled to track him down. The head guard looked at his crew & said, "OK, men, let's circumcise our watches."

__________________
David Johnson

Date:
RE: RE: Full funding for education? It may be too
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: Invictus
"And since I'm on a roll butchering the language, I'll share a story related to me by my semi-fictitious ex-brother-in-law, who earned his "Masters in Corrections" at Parchman. (Perhaps Dr. Cabana can verify this one...)

Some inmate had escaped from one of the camps & a posse of guards was assembled to track him down. The head guard looked at his crew & said, "OK, men, let's circumcise our watches.""


This one supercedes only slightly the remark made by a ball player some years back (I can't recall the source) who said that he could hit with his left hand or his right hand. "I'm amphibious."

__________________
Word Hound

Date:
RE: Full funding for education? It may be too late
Permalink Closed

Many terms, through common usage, have become respectable and integrated into standard dictionaries quite rapidly Here is my hypothesis as to why the term "irregardless" has not gained the same level of dictionary respectability. My guess is that no political, social, or cultural group has served as an advocate for the term "irrgardless." When a hard rock group calling themselves musicians, comprised largely of those with a pre- adolecent level of maturity, perform something they mistakenly call music, their garbled utterances are sometimes picked up by an entire generation; and the term becomes respectable. The term "irregardless" will become respectable when some rock group uses it in one of their advocacy poems and a generation of adolescents begin using it on the playground. The dictionary moguls will pick it up immediately!

__________________
«First  <  1 2 3 4  >  Last»  | Page of 4  sorted by
 
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.
USM Forum -- Message Board -> AAUP-USM MESSAGE BOARD -> Full funding for education? It may be too late
Tweet this page Post to Digg Post to Del.icio.us


Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse 		Powered by ActiveBoard