Utter Disregard for the English Laguage in America

[Kerz]

I saw a sign at six flags yesterday that got me thinking.

"YOUR GONNA GET WET!"

While I can barely stand the "gonna", I will let it slide. But, a MAJOR nationwide company making a mistake which compromises such a basic rule of the English language in a sign seen by every park-goer? That is ridiculous. How can they disregard our language that much? How can a higher-up not spot that and change the YOUR to YOU ARE or YOU'RE ?I understand breaking rules is the key to innovation in the language (slang becoming an accepted word and so on) this is not the correct way to do it. This isn't a geek reading typos out of the Peluciville Post here,nor is it another stuffy politician complaining how netspeak ruins the language.This is a view of something which has become a very, very bad problem in our country. Such phrases as "I am good" (opposed to "I am well") or "I got 2 legs" (opposed to "I have two legs") are becoming almost expected and so widely accepted, it doesn't matter if someone does this. No one corrects them. I will never correct someone's language in real life, despite me despising it. It's horribly rude and condescending, now matter how you slice it. That's what makes this such a touchy subject. Does anyone else notice this decline in quality of grammar, spelling, and punctuation throughout media and citizens?

[Machinus]

Who cares? Ebonics equals profit. What could be more important than that? Appealing to the education leve of your target demographic translates into a bigger customer base and higher market share. Where's the problem?

[Jacob Orlove]

Who cares? Ebonics equals profit. What could be more important than that? Appealing to the education leve of your target demographic translates into a bigger customer base and higher market share. Where's the problem?

hay wuts up wit dat lol?

[Kerz]

Who cares? Ebonics equals profit. What could be more important than that? Appealing to the education leve of your target demographic translates into a bigger customer base and higher market share. Where's the problem?

Appealing to the Ebonics market would be something like "Hey man, yo gonna get wet!" or something to that effect. I find it very hard to believe that the "YOUR" was intentional marketing genius. The ebonics speakers can read YOU'RE the same way, too. That isn't really ebonics, IMO. Come to think of it, is there any objective ebonics authority?

[Machinus]

It's not just ebonics. The sign was likely a mistake and not a marketing ploy. However, "disregard" for grammar is itself a tool of advertising, and isn't limited to any specific brand of error. Propogation of ignorance is pretty much established as a necessary tool for power, whether its origins are in business or politics. So yes it's irritating, but to me it boils down to the conflict of idealism vs. reality. You can't despise those who don't mind, and those who practice the error. The fault lies with those using error for their own gain. One sign casually reaffirming the public disregard for precision and correctness is just a small example of the abuse English suffers in the pursuit of profit.

[dandan]

Couldn't you lot just call that monstrosity American and leave the English language alone?

Then we wouldn't get people going on about the differences between British English and American English. WTF is British English? Is it English English with added Cornish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Irish Gaelic and Manx (taking British in its widest interpretation as British Isles)? I think not. You mean English English or English as we call it. What is the difference between American English and English? Basically American.

Name that bastard and claim it as your own.

[Saucemaster]

Look, I've been known to blame more than a few social ills on the sanctification of the profit motive, but "the abuse that English suffers in the pursuit of profit"?  What, our language is now some virtuous maiden in mortal danger of rape at the hands of the Huns of Capitalism?  Let's get some perspective here, people.  And what's with the random attack on ebonics?  Outrage at ebonics always seems to contain an undercurrent of class warfare.

Language is a tool.  It is as it is used.  Just be glad we're not intentionally "protecting" our language into irrelevance and a slow death, like France.

That said, that sign would piss me the fuck off.  Can you reach it with a ladder or something?  A can of spray paint would fix that error pretty quickly.

[CrazyCarl]

Couldn't you lot just call that monstrosity American and leave the English language alone?

Then we wouldn't get people going on about the differences between British English and American English. WTF is British English? Is it English English with added Cornish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Irish Gaelic and Manx (taking British in its widest interpretation as British Isles)? I think not. You mean English English or English as we call it. What is the difference between American English and English? Basically American.

Name that bastard and claim it as your own.

You could do what most people do and blame Team Meandeck.

Meandeck English... has a nice ring to it.

Meandeck Dutch

Meandeck French

Meandeck Boolaboolan

[jpmeyer]

"I am good" refers to one's mood, while "I am well" refers to one's health.

[Azhrei]

I saw a sign at six flags yestarday that got me thinking.

"Yestarday", huh? How "ridiculous."

[Demonic Attorney]

Quote from: Kerz on Yesterday at 09:05:29 PM
I saw a sign at six flags yestarday that got me thinking.

"Yestarday", huh? How "ridiculous."

Well,

dispite

a few minor oversights in the post itself, what do you think of the idea it conveys?

[Rico Suave]

The entire purpose of advertising is to get people to remember a name.

I think the advertisers definitely accomplished their job in this situation.

[ill_Dawg]

IMO, using the posessive for the contraction and vice versa isn't as bad as things like "ATM machine" and "10 items or less" that you see every day.  At least it is only a mistake, not a lack of understanding of the language and how it is supposed to work.

-=ADAM=-

[Methuselahn]

The entire purpose of advertising is to get people to remember a name.

I think the advertisers definitely accomplished their job in this situation.

What I don't get is how we didn't forsee them forseeing that we would talk about their sign on the intarweb, thus generating lots of advertising for Six Flags Theme Parks.


The message is perfectly short enough, festers exitement, and provides insurance all in one bundle.  I would bet the sign seems much more appropriate in person.  Then again, if it looks like it was done by an (unprofessional) asshat, then it probably IS shitty.

I dunno. I ain't a english major.

[ill_Dawg]

Have you ever been to Six Flags? I don't think that 9/10 of the people there would even notice that something was wrong with the sign.  The difference between "its" and "it's" confuses and frightens most people, this is just extending the same confusion to a different pair of homophones. I'm too pessimistic to believe that this sort of mistake is some sort of genius marketing ploy to drum up conversation on the internet.  Most people are taught almost nothing about grammar in school, I blame this ignorance for the stupid mistakes that somehow slip through the proofreading process and make it into print.  Anyone who claims otherwise is clearly a bigamist.

-=ADAM=-

[jpmeyer]

While I tend to be very forgiving of things like dialect (Ebonics is a dialect!), popular usage, the influence of messaging technology, etc. on warping English, the one pet peeve that I do have is that not only do most people rarely use the words "irony" and "ironic" properly, they usually call things "ironic" which are the exact opposite of irony.

[dandan]

What sort of theme is Six Flags? It sounds like a dull park to me. Oh look a flagpole! And a flag!
Oh, another one! And another! You couldn't even use semaphore properly with six flags. Wouldn't it be better to have a theme like Disney?
I think in a theme park like Six Flags I'd start to look for grammatical errors to pass the time too......

Note: you could fly one Union flag upside down and another the right way up and see if anyone could tell the difference. Then put one on a ship and call it a Union Jack. You could also fly both versions of the Slovak national flag as not many countries have two. I guess the sixth one should be one of those flags the guys in stripes throw around in the game you lot call football if only to show it is a handkerchief and not a flag. I still can't imagine it being a good day out though. Presumably the 'Your gonna get wet' sign is somewhere near the third flag.

[Jacob Orlove]

the one pet peeve that I do have is that not only do most people rarely use the words "irony" and "ironic" properly, they usually call things "ironic" which are the exact opposite of irony.

Oh man, I hate that too. People see a coincidence and go "omg  irony".

[dandan]

the one pet peeve that I do have is that not only do most people rarely use the words "irony" and "ironic" properly, they usually call things "ironic" which are the exact opposite of irony.

Oh man, I hate that too. People see a coincidence and go "omg  irony".

A Canadian called Alanis taught them how to use the word ironic. Badly.

[Dr. Sylvan]

What sort of theme is Six Flags? It sounds like a dull park to me. Oh look a flagpole! And a flag!
Oh, another one! And another! You couldn't even use semaphore properly with six flags. Wouldn't it be better to have a theme like Disney?
I think in a theme park like Six Flags I'd start to look for grammatical errors to pass the time too......

It's a big collection of roller coasters and other rides. Presumably Kerz saw this sign near one of the water-intensive rides.

I hate misuse of to/too/two, their/there/they're, it's/its and your/you're. The abuse of words like irony doesn't bother me as much because that's the kind of shift I expect in the definitions of words. The homophones are not just undergoing definitional shifts, though; they're not even the same parts of speech as each other! Mutating the definition of a word doesn't actually reduce the amount of information in a sentence, it just makes that word less clear until spoken English finishes the transition to the new definition. When people equate "your" with "you're", though, they're actually removing information from the sentence and reducing the clarity of the written language. It's like the difference between upgrading from MS Word 2000 to MS Word 2002, versus taking out a stick of RAM and not replacing it.

I used an incorrect "their" in an article about a year ago, Knut didn't catch it, and I'm still mad at myself for my act of linguistic sabotage!

[Matt]

What sort of theme is Six Flags? It sounds like a dull park to me. Oh look a flagpole! And a flag!
Oh, another one! And another! You couldn't even use semaphore properly with six flags. Wouldn't it be better to have a theme like Disney?
I think in a theme park like Six Flags I'd start to look for grammatical errors to pass the time too......

Note: you could fly one Union flag upside down and another the right way up and see if anyone could tell the difference. Then put one on a ship and call it a Union Jack. You could also fly both versions of the Slovak national flag as not many countries have two. I guess the sixth one should be one of those flags the guys in stripes throw around in the game you lot call football if only to show it is a handkerchief and not a flag. I still can't imagine it being a good day out though. Presumably the 'Your gonna get wet' sign is somewhere near the third flag.

http://www.sixflags.com/
Named after the six different flags that have been flown over Texas: Spanish, French, Mexican, Texas (the Republic), Confederacy, Union.

[dandan]

Don't you have sarcasm over there?

[Matt]

http://www.sarcasmflags.com