I’m pretty sure my articles contain some grammar mistake, or a few spelling errors, even though I’m using spell check. But what I mean with improper use of language is making at the moment you start stringing words together to make meaning that doesn’t make sense. Let me start of, right away with a common phrase as example:
“Are you sure?”
If the person who asks this wants an intellectual answer, he’d almost certainly get a ‘no’ in reply. You see, when you ask me whether the train leaves at 12:15 and whether I’m sure, I can only reply something like ‘no’, ‘negative’ or ‘I am not sure’. Call me a precisian, but there are simply a lot of factors in play, how on earth can I be sure the train does actually leave at 12:15? And if you ask me if I’m ‘for sure’ attending to Friday’s after party, again, I can only say no. Again, external factors. I could be rushed over by a semitruck in half an hour or aliens may kick in my front door and kidnap me and take me to their weird freaky planet.
I know it’s a little bit far fetched but the words are designed this way. They have a meaning. Sure means ‘without doubt’.
Example:
“Chicken meat is only good for you in proper doses.”
Congrats! 10 words stringed together and no meaning to it! Because ‘proper dose’ is a relative term and it could mean anything. It ranges from zero to infinite. And that includes every ‘dose’ I can think of unless of course, there is a dimension I am unaware of.
Example:
“Your hair is perfect! But I’d only move this tuft of hair behind your ear.”
If it’s perfect, you can change nothing to improve it. For something to be perfect, it must actually be of maximum quality. Yet people use this word so often when things are flawed.
Example:
“I’m use T9 to send text messages.”
Wrong. You use T9 to type text messages, not to send them. I know what you tried to say, but you failed.
To conclude:
So yes, when you use improper language I understand what you where trying to say, but in a way you failed. My integrity forces me to give an answer in reply based on the question you asked, not what you meant to ask. Words have a meaning that is bound to them. And you don’t change that meaning only because you failed to make sense.
Now have a nice day 😉
