"Foul" Language

Things that don't fit anywhere else...

Postby Todah Tear » Thu Nov 16, 2006 10:36 am

Joseph wrote:Actually, what bothers me a lot more than the overuse of obscenities (which as I wrote elsewhere, has a rich cultural heritage of sorts) is the deteriroration of language in business newspeak. People, leverage is a NOUN, not a VERB! OK, so your core competencies are a strategic fit with your best practices enhancing your synergy


Joseph, that's hilarious. :lol: We must work at the same company.
A phase that is over used at my place of employment is, "...going forward..."

Handicap Parking:

With the way women are getting attacked in parking lots (ex. This summer a mother, while placing her baby in a carseat, was attack in broad daylight at the mall), there needs to be a "mother with infants" decal and a "woman alone" decal as well.

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Postby Joseph » Thu Nov 16, 2006 10:41 am

Todah Tear wrote:With the way women are getting attacked in parking lots (ex. This summer a mother, while placing her baby in a carseat, was attack in broad daylight at the mall), there needs to be a "mother with infants" decal and a "woman alone" decal as well.

Bad idea. What that will translate to is "Here's your victim."

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Postby asianflava » Thu Nov 16, 2006 3:02 pm

Joseph wrote: OK, so your core competencies are a strategic fit with your best practices enhancing your synergy - WHAT THE F**K DOES THAT MEAN?!!


Maybe we should form a cross-functional team to benchmark other areas so that we can make it a metric on our stoplight chart?

We make fun of that buisness speak. When we are in meetings and one of our stupid managers spouts one off, I kinda chuckle to myself.
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Postby Ira » Thu Nov 16, 2006 3:59 pm

Joseph wrote:People, leverage is a NOUN, not a VERB!


Sorry, but "leverage" has been a verb for a long time, as well as a noun. Just check your dictionary.

That's the beauty of the English language, in that it adapts in SENSIBLE ways to meet our new requirements and better express what it is we want to say.

A word may not be in the dictionary today, urban OR rural (because you sure can't blame any of this on a hip-hop culture). But if the word makes sense and it's widely used, even the folks at WEBSTER have to admit that it's now correct English.

Thank HEAVENS I don't live in France, where the language is officially "protected" from change...as if French was so wonderful in the first place. What an arrogant, uppity attitude:

That unless you use the words I deem proper, YOU'RE not proper.
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Postby JawjaBoy » Thu Nov 16, 2006 4:30 pm

I'm glad I'm not a foreigner,trying to understand a language where 2 gooses are geese,but 2 mooses are not MEESE !!! :lol:
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Postby Todah Tear » Thu Nov 16, 2006 5:11 pm

Joseph wrote:
Todah Tear wrote:With the way women are getting attacked in parking lots (ex. This summer a mother, while placing her baby in a carseat, was attack in broad daylight at the mall), there needs to be a "mother with infants" decal and a "woman alone" decal as well.

Bad idea. What that will translate to is "Here's your victim."

Joseph


Joseph,

The decals don't literally have to say "woman alone" etc. ;) My point was that the two categories of people that I listed need a parking space that is really close to the store front as much as a handicap person...maybe for different reasons, but they need the easy access and short walking distance just the same. Perhaps DOT can open up the qualification for a handicap decal to include these categories.



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Postby asianflava » Thu Nov 16, 2006 5:25 pm

Todah Tear wrote:[, there needs to be a "mother with infants" decal


There is one of those spots marked at one of the markets, It's more general and says, "mothers with children". After driving in circles looking for a handicapped spot, I parked in one of those. Some smart a$$ guy says, where are your kids? I tell hm that we have a handicapped person with us who cannot walk very far. If he can find us an available handicapped spot, then I'll gladly move. Well, he shut up.
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Postby Joseph » Fri Nov 17, 2006 4:07 am

Ira wrote:Sorry, but "leverage" has been a verb for a long time, as well as a noun. Just check your dictionary.

Define "a long time." My dictionary (Webster's New World, 1974) contains only nouns for leverage.
That's the beauty of the English language, in that it adapts in SENSIBLE ways to meet our new requirements and better express what it is we want to say.

I agree, but this isn't meeting new requirements. In proper English it would be provide leverage. Turning nouns into verbs is only one symptom: there's a whole new lexicon of businesspeak out there that IMHO is simply a new version of smoke and mirrors designed by consultants to make their services sound more impressive and so drive up their prices.

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Postby Ira » Fri Nov 17, 2006 6:22 am

Proper English is a relative term. I mean, is there like an acceptable TIMEFRAME during which something isn't proper--and then it is?

Heck, we would all talk like Benjamin Franklin, and while the guy was the coolest, I don't want to use 50 words to express what I can express in 5.

Anyone watch Deadwood here? I can't understand half of what these guys are SAYING! I can't believe they spoke like that then, but they must have based it on archives.
Last edited by Ira on Fri Nov 17, 2006 8:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Joseph » Fri Nov 17, 2006 7:24 am

Ira wrote:Heck, we would all talk like Benjamin Franklin, and while the guy was the coolest, I don't want to use 50 words to express what I can express in 5.

We’d be better off if we did. Franklin was famous for his substantial vocabulary and grasp of the English language. One of the reasons vocabulary figures so highly in intelligence tests is that there is a direct correlation between intelligence and vocabulary: a limited vocabulary actually limits intelligence by limiting the reception and understanding of ideas through language. George Orwell knew what he was talking about.

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Postby JawjaBoy » Fri Nov 17, 2006 8:12 am

OK-- you have FORCED me to do this-- I am going to use some fowl language: QUACK-QUACK!! CLUCK-CLUCK,and GOBBLE-GOBBLE!!! Take THAT!! :shock:
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Postby Ira » Fri Nov 17, 2006 8:38 am

Joseph wrote:
Ira wrote:Heck, we would all talk like Benjamin Franklin, and while the guy was the coolest, I don't want to use 50 words to express what I can express in 5.

We’d be better off if we did.


Maybe in the world you'd like to create, but not the real one.
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Postby Joseph » Fri Nov 17, 2006 8:53 am

Ira wrote:Maybe in the world you'd like to create, but not the real one.

I know. Instead many adult Americans have a vocabulary little better than an elementary school kid - and the intelligence to match.

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Postby Miriam C. » Fri Nov 17, 2006 2:21 pm

Ira wrote:
Joseph wrote:
Ira wrote:Heck, we would all talk like Benjamin Franklin, and while the guy was the coolest, I don't want to use 50 words to express what I can express in 5.

We’d be better off if we did.


Maybe in the world you'd like to create, but not the real one.


Hummmm. Lets see the latest studies show men and women use language differently and women use more words.. If men start using more words--- :lol: :twisted: Will they be more like women or will other guys hear --wawa wonanmw mjwljoej amdo;weit j. :lol:

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Postby Elumia » Fri Nov 17, 2006 3:01 pm

leverage
2 entries found for leverage.
To select an entry, click on it.
leverage[1,noun]leverage[2,transitive verb]

Main Entry: 2leverage
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): -aged; -ag·ing
1 : to provide (as a corporation) or supplement (as money) with leverage; also : to enhance as if by supplying with financial leverage
2 : to use for gain : EXPLOIT <shamelessly leverage the system to their advantage -- Alexander Wolff>

according to merriam webster online
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

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