30 Times Linguists Were Disappointed In People’s Knowledge Of Linguistics, As Shared In This Dedicated Online Group
As the famous Wu-Tang Clan once said: “Words rule everything around me.” Wait, I’ve got that wrong, what was it now… Oh, right, it was “cash". How could I forget!
But the same could definitely be applied to words. They’re the best tools we have to convey complex thoughts. And with language being as important as it is, it’s no surprise that sometimes it is wildly misunderstood or intentionally misused.
When it gets so bad that it’s funny, that’s when the Reddit community /r/badlinguistics comes in to collect.
More info: Reddit
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Ye Old Slang
“Please Stop Using It”
Am I seeing things? Am I certain this person is an idiot? Am I bold enough to make such an assertation? Yes. Yes, I am.
Apparently, English Is The Only Language In The World That Evolves Or Uses Loan Words
My bachelor thesis was on this topic, so I know a thing or two about it 😅
Wittgenstein, an Austrian philosopher, considered by some as the greatest philosopher of the 20th century, once argued that reality is shaped by the words we use. He argued this with a simple drawing of a triangle. The triangle could be considered as a hole, a solid shape, a mountain, wedge, and so many more things.
When we think of all these various things the triangle represents, these concepts summarized by words, it gives meaning to what we see.
The same rule applies to everything around us. Our Bored Panda interview guest for today, Lauren Gawne, a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at La Trobe University, and co-host of Lingthusiasm (an engaging podcast about linguistics!), said that what excites her about linguistics most is that "it allows you to make sense of language, which is all around you.”
English = Bad French
We took your countries and we took your words... like the British Mueseum, if it ain't nailed down, we takin' it! If it is nailed down, we takin' that too...
One Of The Stranger Covid Etymologies I've Seen (Xpost Insanepeoplefacebook)
Actual Page On Conservapedia
What in the heavens? Then again, conservatives are full of shite anyways.
Did you hear about the one with diarrhea? He thought he was melting...
Load More Replies...This person is an idiot. 'Democrat' is a noun. You cannot use it to describe another noun unless you add an adjectival suffix like '-ic'. OTOH, the word 'Republican' serves as both a noun and an adjective. English is hard, Rob Smith, but if you're an American and don't speak it properly, follow your own xenophobic advice and GTFO.
Conservapedia? Omfg, I'm gonna hurt myself laughing too hard. Just the thought of all the horribly misinformed rants about completely mundane things is sparking so much joy. You might as well just label the site "very wrong takes on the world from very bigoted people! Oh, and we don't have to be accurate in any way! We self edit!".
I'm kinda grimacing. My brother could have written this entry.
Republicans are now spreading the story that planned parenthood was originally designed as a program to sterilize blacks, and was headed by the Democrats. "See we aren't the racist party they are." At least that's what my crazy MAGA uncle says he learned from fox News.
Good grief. Even WIKIpedia has a decent entry about Margaret Sanger. Where do you get your news/information?
Load More Replies...FINALLY, someone else knows this -it's been driving me NUTS for years!!! HATE hearing 'the Democratic' party- if there is a 'party' any less democratic it's THEM!!!!
I stopped reading an article in a major magazine when I saw it referring to the Democratic Party as the "Democrat Party." Couldn't believe I was seeing it in a publication that has nothing (or so I thought) to do with right-wing politics or politics at all. And for anyone out there who has maybe only been exposed to right-wing media, understand that the Democratic Party does not call itself the "Democrat Party" and it is considered pejorative, having arisen among the right wing as a less democratic-sounding and more abrasive-sounding term that is intentionally used to diminish.
It's just that deliberately mispronouncing someone's name is a common form of social bullying. And that's all these people got.
Linguistics is the science of analyzing the meaning, discourse, and many more aspects of language, from everyday to hyperspecific.
For example, some of the questions that linguistics may help you answer are why you talk differently (code switch) with different groups of people - your friends, your parents, your colleagues, the police, etc.
Another thing is something you’ve definitely experienced firsthand - you and another person speak the exact same language, but you sound very different to each other (spoiler: it’s because you each speak in a slightly different accent).
Linguists notice these things in their daily conversations and interactions with the world. Lauren mentions that even people who haven’t studied linguistics pick up on these interesting features of language all the time, but actually studying it gives people the framework and terminology to make sense of what these interesting features are.
Only Certain Pronouns Are "Backed By Science" I Guess
Well, turns out the words 'I', 'me', 'you', 'they', 'them', 'us', and 'we' aren't real because they're not backed by science /s
School vs. The North East!
Baby Talk Will Stunt Your Child’s Acquisition
Yes. Greetings and salutations, Baby. I find you quite adorable. Do you concur with my assessment? I assure you, it is correct.
But today, we aren’t speaking about the good examples, quite the opposite. One horrible notion that people still hold is that accents are bad and you know what I mean when I say this.
“The way we speak is perfect and pure, but these other people are mangling our beautiful language.”
Although an extreme example, this is a very real example of linguistic racism, which is based on accent, dialect, or patterns of speech.
A person who can understand these variations of speech is a better communicator (and also a better person who doesn’t gatekeep language).
English Hardest Language
Not true of course. That entirely depends on where you are from. There was research on that. Results on most difficult languages in general : 1. Mandarin 2. Arabic 3. Telugu 4. Japanese 5. Polish 6. Turkish 7. Russian 8. Vietnamese 9. Finnish 10. Korean
It Is Impossible To Learn Swedish Because Of One Sound Which No Non-Native Swedish Person Can Actually Say
I’m Bri-Ish
Dialing it back a little, some other examples of “bad” linguistics are misnomers - names that are used incorrectly.
For example, blackboards aren’t usually black anymore, they’re green, red, or even white! Chalk sticks are also likely not chalk, but gypsum, what a scam, huh?
Also, peanuts are not really nuts, but rather legumes. Same goes for coconuts, which aren’t nuts. They’re drupes or stone fruit.
Also, a funny bone isn’t a bone at all, it’s your ulnar nerve. It’s uncertain why it’s called that way, but it may be because of the upper arm bone, called a humerus, which is pretty close to humorous, and soon we’ve got the good ole’ funny bone.
The “How Do We Make This Fantasy Race Sound Evil/Threatening?” Starterpack
Ahh Yes, My Favourite Language Family, The POC Languages
I... don't understand how learning Hindu or Swahili would be EASIER if you already know Mandarin vs. already knowing English XD The language families for Hindu, Swahili, and Mandarin are all drastically different.
Today's SMBC Comic Fits Right At Home In This Subreddit!
Apparently ‘My’ Can Only Literally Mean Possession
For more than 10 years now, the bad linguistics community on Reddit has been collecting these examples, analyzing them, and calling out awful examples of bad “science” wherever they can. Make sure to visit the community for more funnies. And if you’re feeling scientific, the father of bad linguistics is waiting for you - the 4 years senior /r/linguistics Reddit community.
Finally, if you’re in a “I wanna roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty in this whole ‘linguistics’ thing” kind of mood, then Lauren Gawne came through for us.
You may find something good by looking up “lingcomm” - the goal of which is communicating linguistics to broader audiences or by watching Crash Course Linguistics, co-authored by Lauren.
She’s also written for many YouTube channels, pop linguistics blogs and books and social media, so don’t forget to tune in to Lingthusiasm!
Three Different Comments, From Three Different People, All Commenting On The Same TikTok
Someone please help, it's 4:10am and my brain is not home. Spanish from Spain and Spanish from Mexico are THE SAME LANGUAGE, right? (Other than regional differences.) It's just called español in Mexico and castellano in Spain. I'm adopted, but my family is Mexican, and I learned Spanish as a child. We've had exchange students from Spain and I was able to understand them perfectly and converse with them just fine. These three people are just idiots, right?!
A Speed Of 1 Language Per Week
Chinese Characters Are Proof That We Need Jesus
Bruh... from 22+ years of dating my Chinese boyfriend, I've learned a LOT about the written Chinese language. A lot of it is pictographic in origin, so yes, certain characters will "resemble" the word they represent (like the words for net, fire, farm/field, person, meat.) But this is due to literal THOUSANDS of years of language development and has zero to do with a fictional white man who wore a robe and sandals. They are correct above with the depiction for the character for "rest" in that it contains the character for "person"... but it DOES NOT have a Christian "cross" in it. Written Chinese existed long before people invented Jesus and the Christian cross.
Spanish Was Spoken In Portugal Until They Stole Portuguese From Brazilian Natives
They're describing how they "stole" the language as if it was a heist.
Found This Gem
The 63 million people in the world who speak Italian as a first language would like a word (and some gestures) with whomever posted this.
Khmer Is Indo-European
Interesting Take On English Word Etymologies
Those first three are the stupidest descriptions I've ever seen, and I've seen a racist description of what the word "Covid-19" means.
A Response To A Merriam-Webster's Twitter Thread About Words Changing Their Meaning
“English Is Actually A Chinese Dialect” And Much More
I Haven't Seen A Meme On This Sub In While So I Made One
"Is Korean Indo-European?"
It MUST be true, because English has the word "park" and there's a Korean last name that's spelled "Park"!!! PROOF!!!! /s
English Is A Tonal Language Because It Has Intonation
No. A tonal language means if you get the tone wrong, you might be saying, "Your wife is a big hippo," instead of what you wanted to say, which was, "Highly enjoyable."
From A Video About A Monolingual Irish Speaker
Yeah, you know, those Ancient Greeks that are totally immortal and still living in Italy... we had some movies about these immortals, it's a series of films called "Highlander"...
Someone Must Have Murdered Cases In English
These entries gave me a fit of the vapors. I was an English major with a degree in English/Creative Writing and a great love for actual, TRUE word origins and etymology XD
Yeah. It hurt. I think a may have sprained my Broca’s area. Potentially my Wernicke’s area too.
Load More Replies...Do people actually believe these things? Notice, if you will, how many people claim that their native language is that from which all other languages derive. I am a published author, back when there were publishing houses, publishing actual books. Some of these comments made my skin crawl.
As an anthropology major, they make my skin crawl, too.
Load More Replies...The one thing I keep trying to remind people is that language only works if we all use it the same way. I am freelance. My dad doesn't think I have a business because I don't have a brick and mortar place and I don't sell products (I sell services). Sorry b***h - that's what it means in English. The rest of us are going to use it that way.
As an interpreter stuff like this makes me laugh. I've been told by people who think they know that ASL isn't a real language because it doesn't have the verb "to be". Yeah it's because it's a zero copula language. Mandarin doesn't either and it has the most speakers on Earth.
These entries gave me a fit of the vapors. I was an English major with a degree in English/Creative Writing and a great love for actual, TRUE word origins and etymology XD
Yeah. It hurt. I think a may have sprained my Broca’s area. Potentially my Wernicke’s area too.
Load More Replies...Do people actually believe these things? Notice, if you will, how many people claim that their native language is that from which all other languages derive. I am a published author, back when there were publishing houses, publishing actual books. Some of these comments made my skin crawl.
As an anthropology major, they make my skin crawl, too.
Load More Replies...The one thing I keep trying to remind people is that language only works if we all use it the same way. I am freelance. My dad doesn't think I have a business because I don't have a brick and mortar place and I don't sell products (I sell services). Sorry b***h - that's what it means in English. The rest of us are going to use it that way.
As an interpreter stuff like this makes me laugh. I've been told by people who think they know that ASL isn't a real language because it doesn't have the verb "to be". Yeah it's because it's a zero copula language. Mandarin doesn't either and it has the most speakers on Earth.