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It's got nothing to do with grammar. "I could care less" is a perfectly grammatical sentence - it follows all the rules of English sentence construction. Simila

It's got nothing to do with grammar. "I could care less" is a perfectly grammatical sentence - it follows all the rules of English sentence construction. Similarly, "colorless green ideas sleep furiously" is also perfectly grammatical, it just doesn't make any semantic sense.

SideburnsOfDoom 14y ago
But "I could care less" is a perfectly grammatical sentence, which has a semantic meaning, which, as David Mitchell explains at comic length, is the opposite of what the speaker means to say. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw
- nollidge 14y ago
  Right. How's that different from what I said?
dpark 14y ago
And so we move from discussing pedantic points of language to discussing tangential points that are even more pedantic. :)
- freehunter 14y ago
  Thus is the nature of a living language. Everyone has their own interpretation of how the language should be used, and it's up to everyone to find common ground in order to be understood. Debates, even inconsequential debates, are an integral part of understanding the words we assign arbitrary meaning to.
- nollidge 14y ago
  If we're going to talk about language, then it's far from pedantic to insist on using it properly while doing so.
  - dpark 14y ago
    I was poking fun, but complaining about the use of the word "grammar" here is quite pedantic. Swapping the word "grammar" for something more strictly correct would have yielded no improvement to the conversation.
    - nollidge 14y ago
      > would have yielded no improvement to the conversation thats true freehunter didnt need to use the most best word in order to get acrost the course grain jyst of his thaughts but at sum point the lak of exact language use does become a hinderance to smoothe discorse and i guess id rather air on the side of accurasy and preciseness and ask the same of others even if that meens i risk being thaught a pedant
      - dpark 14y ago
        Yes, that's exactly what the conversation looked like when he said "grammar" instead of "semantics". I'm glad you've saved us from such dereliction of discourse.

SideburnsOfDoom 14y ago

But "I could care less" is a perfectly grammatical sentence, which has a semantic meaning, which, as David Mitchell explains at comic length, is the opposite of what the speaker means to say. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw

nollidge 14y ago
Right. How's that different from what I said?

dpark 14y ago

And so we move from discussing pedantic points of language to discussing tangential points that are even more pedantic. :)

freehunter 14y ago
Thus is the nature of a living language. Everyone has their own interpretation of how the language should be used, and it's up to everyone to find common ground in order to be understood. Debates, even inconsequential debates, are an integral part of understanding the words we assign arbitrary meaning to.
nollidge 14y ago
If we're going to talk about language, then it's far from pedantic to insist on using it properly while doing so.
- dpark 14y ago
  I was poking fun, but complaining about the use of the word "grammar" here is quite pedantic. Swapping the word "grammar" for something more strictly correct would have yielded no improvement to the conversation.
  - nollidge 14y ago
    > would have yielded no improvement to the conversation thats true freehunter didnt need to use the most best word in order to get acrost the course grain jyst of his thaughts but at sum point the lak of exact language use does become a hinderance to smoothe discorse and i guess id rather air on the side of accurasy and preciseness and ask the same of others even if that meens i risk being thaught a pedant
    - dpark 14y ago
      Yes, that's exactly what the conversation looked like when he said "grammar" instead of "semantics". I'm glad you've saved us from such dereliction of discourse.