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> If you knew anything about human language... > My pet peeve is people like you... Wow, that was kind of mean. I understand that you have an opinion about thi

• codyrobbins 18y ago
  Accept my apologies -- I honestly didn't intend that reply to come across as mean-spirited, but I guess it did. I just feel like judging a person just because they use a particular turn of phrase is kind of awful, especially when, as the article explains, they are actually using the phrase in a highly subtle and expressive way, which the entire speech community implicitly agrees on (and has agreed on for hundreds of years, in this case). I don't see how it's any more insulting for me to say that my pet peeve is people like you than it is for you to say that your pet peeve is people who say 'literally'. In any event I'm not proclaiming you ignorant as an insult or name-calling -- I'm simply stating that I believe it's ignorant to think less of a person because you don't think their usage makes 'logical' sense. Language is a locus of communicative intent and its purpose is being achieved marvelously by this usage: otherwise people would not be using it.