I realize that this is pedantic, and I don't mean to really imply that what she wrote is incorrect (because I don't think it is), rather, I think it's an interesting linguistic phenomenon. Is it just a question of informality? Would the author of a book use phrases like these? How about a editorial piece in a newspaper or magazine? Is it specific to the electronic medium?
I guess it just comes down "to say" really doesn't mean only "to convey through speech", it has many other meanings. I wonder how long ago it may have had a narrower meaning? Frankly, people hardly use "say" in it's literal context anymore... the use phrases such as "... and then he went `oh yeah`." and "... and she was like `Get out of my face!`" instead. I don't think I would ever write things that way (maybe I have... I'll have to scour my blog), but I do catch myself saying things like that every so often.
And that's all I have to say about that.
9 comments:
Interesting point. It did not cross my mind at the time that the word speechless was at all out of place. It certainly felt like the natural comment. I'm sure that it is related to the informality of the setting. Of course, I could have written, "I am at a loss for words."
I would love to break myself of the habit of saying "to be like" instead of "to say" or "to think." I use the second one even more often than the first. The worst part of the habit is that it can generate confusion. When I say: I'm like, 'Are you crazy?', I might have said it aloud or just thought it. I've done a pretty good job at replacing unspoken reactions with "I thought to myself..." A bit wordy, true, but at least it's better than using like.
I personally like, "Words fail me."
btw, I just noticed that even the blogspot site does this... your comments come up (as mine will) with "karen and dion said..." and "gina said..."
It's ubiquitous!
I also just noticed, that the date is uses for the post seems to be the date on which I started to write the post, not the date I ended up publishing it... interesting.
you can change the date at the bottom of the create/edit post form.
You are totally right!
Isn't it neat how I've made the original post already, almost three years in the future.
The tenses in that last comment are all mixed up.. .but I guess that's what happens when things you did in the past happen in the future!
My comments won't make much sense now (they never really do anyway) because I've changed the year of the post back to 2007 after I realized that it would be at the top of my blog for another three years unless I changed the date on all subsequent posts.
I'm too lazy for that.
Gina, me too. I thought of "words fail me" just after I posted but decided not to add another comment just for that.
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