Grammar Nazi

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Grammar nazi/spelling nazi or grammar pedant/spelling pedant is a term for a pedant who compulsively criticizes or corrects others' grammar mistakes, typos, misspellings, and other errors in speech or writing. [1] The term originated in 1990s discussion forums as a way to insult those who overly correct others' grammar. "Grammar Nazis" often correct mistakes humorously, though this can reinforce arbitrary standards of linguistic correctness. These corrections often reflect literacy privilege. [2] The term is often criticized for being a lighthearted use of the word Nazi. [3] [4] Grammar nazis are often criticized themselves for being rude or harsh. [5]

Contents

History

Origins

The Nazis were the German government and military responsible for the Holocaust during World War II. They were extremely authoritarian. By the 1950s-60s, "nazi," when written in lowercase, became a term for anyone seen as extremely authoritarian. Early examples include "surf nazis" who were fanatical about surfing. The term "grammar nazi" appeared on a Usenet forum as early as 1990, and gained wider recognition after the "Soup Nazi" character on Seinfeld in 1995.

Widespread use

With the spread of social media, grammar nazis have become more common, as it is easier than ever to correct typos and misspellings. [2] Grammar nazis are particularly prevalent on Facebook, Reddit, and X (Twitter).

Cultural impact

In 2016, Reese Lansangan released the song Grammar Nazi about a woman upset with her love interest's grammar. The song went viral and is even used to teach English. [1] The song Word Crimes by "Weird Al" Yankovic highlights the issues with grammar policing through humor, though it also sparks debate about literacy privilege and social inequality. [2] Grammar nazis have even been found to be helpful to English learners. [6]

Criticisms

Grammatical "purism"

One aspect of grammar nazis that is often criticized is their insistence on grammatical "purism." Grammar nazis strictly adhere to traditional grammar rules. However, their focus on minute details detracts from effective communication. [5] These pedants fail to recognize the many dialects of English, such as African American English, as correct. This can exhibit racism or classism. They fail to acknowledge the difference between standard and linguistic grammar. [1] Grammar nazis strictly adhere to etymological fallacy, and fail to recognize that words can have separate informal meanings.

Bogus rules

Many grammar pedants will rely on incorrect or outdated grammatical rules. Languages change over time, and formal grammar is not the only correct manner of speaking and writing. Conversational grammar is incredibly different. For example, a grammar nazi would be against using split infinitives, even though they are grammatically correct, [5] and perfectly acceptable conversationally. [7]

Ethical critiques

Calling a grammar nazi a "nazi" is giving the word nazi a more lighthearted meaning in that context. Many argue that this is not an ethical practice, regarding the atrocities committed by the Nazis during WW2. [3] [4] Additionally, correcting people's grammar compulsively is oftentimes rude. [8] These pedants can also be racist by not recognizing ethnic dialects. [1]

Related Research Articles

A split infinitive is a grammatical construction in which an adverb or adverbial phrase separates the "to" and "infinitive" constituents of what was traditionally called the "full infinitive", but is more commonly known in modern linguistics as the to-infinitive. In the history of English language aesthetics, the split infinitive was often deprecated, despite its prevalence in colloquial speech. The opening sequence of the Star Trek television series contains a well-known example, "to boldly go where no man has gone before", wherein the adverb boldly was said to split the full infinitive, to go. Multiple words may split a to-infinitive, such as: "The population is expected to more than double in the next ten years."

English grammar is the set of structural rules of the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and whole texts.

In linguistics, a gerund is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, it is one that functions as a noun. The name is derived from Late Latin gerundium, meaning "which is to be carried out". In English, the gerund has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiable by an adverb and being able to take a direct object. The term "-ing form" is often used in English to refer to the gerund specifically. Traditional grammar makes a distinction within -ing forms between present participles and gerunds, a distinction that is not observed in such modern grammars as A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language and The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.

In grammar, a frequentative form of a word is one that indicates repeated action but is not to be confused with iterative aspect. The frequentative form can be considered a separate but not completely independent word called a frequentative. The frequentative is no longer productive in English, unlike in some language groups, such as Finno-Ugric, Balto-Slavic, and Turkic.

The preterite or preterit is a grammatical tense or verb form serving to denote events that took place or were completed in the past; in some languages, such as Spanish, French, and English, it is equivalent to the simple past tense. In general, it combines the perfective aspect with the past tense and may thus also be termed the perfective past. In grammars of particular languages the preterite is sometimes called the past historic, or the aorist. When the term "preterite" is used in relation to specific languages, it may not correspond precisely to this definition. In English it can be used to refer to the simple past verb form, which sometimes expresses perfective aspect. The case of German is similar: the Präteritum is the simple (non-compound) past tense, which does not always imply perfective aspect, and is anyway often replaced by the Perfekt even in perfective past meanings.

In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is the nonstandard use of language that results from the overapplication of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a misunderstanding of such rules that the form or phrase they use is more "correct", standard, or otherwise preferable, often combined with a desire to appear formal or educated.

In grammar, a future tense is a verb form that generally marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future. An example of a future tense form is the French aimera, meaning "will love", derived from the verb aimer. The "future" expressed by the future tense usually means the future relative to the moment of speaking, although in contexts where relative tense is used it may mean the future relative to some other point in time under consideration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English usage controversies</span> Disputes over "correct" grammar and style

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"Between you and I" is an English phrase that has drawn considerable interest from linguists, grammarians, and stylists. It is commonly used by style guides as a convenient label for a construction where the nominative/subjective form of pronouns is used for two pronouns joined by and in circumstances where the accusative/oblique case would be used for a single pronoun, typically following a preposition, but also as the object of a transitive verb. One frequently cited use of the phrase occurs in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (1596–98). According to many style guides, the Shakespearian character who used the phrase should have written "between you and me". Use of this common construction has been described as "a grammatical error of unsurpassable grossness", although whether it is in fact an error is a matter of debate.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Typographical error</span> Mistake made in typing printed material

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Control freak is a colloquialism that is usually employed to describe a person obsessed with performing tasks in a way that they perceive as correct. A control freak can become distressed when someone causes a deviation in the way that they prefer to perform tasks. Someone who tries to control how other people perform tasks, while having no good reason for interfering, can also be considered a control freak.

<i>Elocutio</i> Third canon of classical rhetoric

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<i>The Way We Talk Now</i> 2001 collection of essays by Geoffrey Nunberg

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An attributive verb is a verb that modifies a noun in the manner of an attributive adjective, rather than express an independent idea as a predicate.

In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used for signaling modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying. The term is also used more broadly to describe the syntactic expression of modality – that is, the use of verb phrases that do not involve inflection of the verb itself.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Why You Don't Want To Call Yourself A "Grammar Nazi"". Dictionary.com. 2020-08-03. Retrieved 2024-05-26.
  2. 1 2 3 Švelch, Jaroslav; Sherman, Tamah (July 2018). ""I see your garbage": Participatory practices and literacy privilege on "Grammar Nazi" Facebook pages in different sociolinguistic contexts". New Media & Society . 20 (7): 2391–2410. doi:10.1177/1461444817719087 via SageJournals.
  3. 1 2 Bates, Andrea (2015-04-07). "Why We Need to Stop Using the Term 'Grammar Nazi'". Kveller. Retrieved 2024-05-26.
  4. 1 2 YUNiversity, The (2016-03-04). "Don't Be a Grammar Nazi!". I Love Charts. Retrieved 2024-05-26.
  5. 1 2 3 "Why grammar pedants miss the point". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 2024-05-26.
  6. Imanuela Soehendro, Eunike; Wuri Septiani, Ika; Zhafarina, Zhafira; Jumanto, Jumanto (April 2021). "Grammar-Nazi Analysis in English Learning Process Among Millennials in Indonesia". Journal Basis. 8 (1).
  7. "Split Infinitives | Effective Writing Practices Tutorial". Northern Illinois University. Retrieved 2024-05-26.
  8. Chatterjee, Arundhati (2020-08-13). "I used to proudly call myself a grammar Nazi, until someone called me a jerk". Tweak India. Retrieved 2024-05-26.