As I often say, my interest in grammar isn’t merely a fondness for "correcting" others. It’s about clarity and efficiency, about saying what you mean, about making every word count. I like to think about the ways in which language works and sometimes the ways it changes. That being said, I am not a pure descriptivist. There is a difference between standard and non-standard constructions, and there are some things you can say (and those things differ with differing audiences) that will rob you of any credibility you may have. Writing students putting "your a great teacher" on a college course evaluation and, on the other hand, people like me running around talking about "bling" are both very, very wrong, but for completely different reasons.
The overwhelming prevalence of the (casual, technically incorrect) expression "hello, it’s me" does in no way render "hello, it is I" wrong, for example. "Hello, it is I" has the distinct benefit of being grammatically correct. (Linking verbs, predicate nominatives, oh my!) The reason I mention this particular case is that it seems to speak to some of the recent capricious (and inconsistent, contradictory) blather about "grammar" over here, which you may blame for my return to talking about this fantastically interesting subject.
I’ve been thinking about grammar again–specifically, those little verbal tics that just chap my ass. One I find particularly rampant in the world of blogging (or "journaling," as many of these writers spurn the word "blog" for reasons largely unknown) is what I will call "uptalking."
Uptalking? Is the thing? Where you represent rising tone? With a question mark. It’s a part of the ubiquitous fashion of writing "how you talk" that seems to infect a lot of online writing. ("Oh, me? I just write? Like? How I talk.") Don’t get me wrong; I am guilty of some of the same things. Sentence fragments, mainly. I’m awfully fond of them in casual writing, but don’t go thinking I’d pepper my dissertation with them in the same devil-may-care fashion. As far as uptalking goes, I may well have tried it here a couple times, too. If I hadn’t tried it myself, I wouldn’t bash it so readily.
Not only are these writers not asking a question (rather, they are merely using the question mark as a typographical representation of the bimboesque, Valley-girl-style employment of rising tone), they’re often doing nothing more than obscuring their meaning. When I encounter a paragraph in which this fashion has all but taken over, my first reaction is to filter the question marks out–like I would had I gotten an email somebody had copied and pasted from a Word document, making the punctuation go all screwy. Filtering them out merely renders the entire mess more confusing, though, and I have to go back and begin again. Eventually I got used to reading Bimbo Language, but my acclimation hasn’t really lessened my dislike.
I think there’s also a sort of assumption that this aping of (sub-) human speech is, in and of itself, funny. It isn’t. Airheadedness alone, even ironic "airheadedness," does not constitute a joke. See also: Dude, Where’s My Car.
hm?
uh? huh?
arlington, that link is great! Lots of good discussion, although I don’t quite understand where some of the confusion they experience in the various articles comes from, but it’s still quite interesting.
vague, does your hatred of uptalking perhaps relate to a certain previous position at the so-called Asshats Federal Credit Union? “586?” (Oh, god, in this new notation this should probably be “5?8?6??”. Verily the apocalypse is nigh.)
Uptalking is an Australian phenomenon as far as I am aware, and yes, it drives me to distraction too?
I’m a fan of the random full stop. Fragments. They are my friend.
Best. Punctuation. Ever.
Guilty guilty guilty.
And I’m not even good at it.
my grandparents got my sister one of those super annoying tapes of kids songs when she was little and one of them was captain vegetable. in pertinent part: “it is i, captain vegetable, with my carrots and my celery!” so “it is i” sounds like superhero talk to me. lame superhero talk.
No, uptalking is a California phenomenon…I’m pretty sure of this as I’ve had to sit through many an uptalker’s diatribe on the mall, her nails, etc., etc..
LOL, ths wz such a grt post though. ‘Cause you know I LOVE the grammar shit? And, like, OMG…IMHO I think it’s like you know fine. To use I when you wnt? Or like whenever it seems good and all that. You know??? Duuudddee….ttyl…
No one’s sure if HRT originated in California or Australia - in the UK we call it “Australian Questioning Intonation” and it definitely took off here due to the popularity of the soap opera Neighbours.
California, Australia, whatever. Clearly it came FROM HELL. Bah.
uh oh, i’m going to check my blog right now. i fear i am very guilty of this. but, on a more academic note, i once had a professor who “explained” to me that women tend to end statements in (what you’re calling) uptalk because we are more unsure of ourselves due to social/cultural stereotypes and oppression. The professor was a man. I hated him. Without question.
Ugh– I would be tempted to give him a very confident, definitive punch in the neck.
heh. if mel’s experience was any indicator, he might retaliate with a coffee mug.
Oh, lord, THAT GUY. What a nutbag! (He was perfectly normal when I had him, but from what you guys have told me…sheesh!)
Firstly, I’d like to note that I have a very complicated relationship with independent clauses, commas, and semi-colons.
Secondly, uptalking still makes more sense than the Time Cube.
A good scolding. We needed that. Glad to discover your blog. I was beginning to think that when I died the distinction between your and you’re, not to mention there’s and theirs, would be extinct.
It’s my impression that uptalking is sheer California.
“Uptalking” is not a Californian phenomenon; I have observed it in my Canadian relatives, and it can also be heard in the speech-melody of nearly every native speaker of French. Uptalking in conjunction with mall hair, a hundred-word vocabulary, and a certain mushiness of mouth is certainly a California phenomenon. Indicating uptalking with question marks inserted into one’s writing is inexcusable regardless of one’s country of origin. I haven’t ever seen this punctuative behavior, and I hope I never do.