donutsweeper | Help with wording

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Help with wording

UK peeps, a question on wording (that I'm too embarrassed about to post over at

dw_britglish .)

For a US character I would say that, after receiving a a life-altering injury, a character is barely capable of going to the bathroom by himself. Bathroom, in this case, would mean the ability to use the toilet and wash up and whatnot.

Would the UK wording be "use the w.c. (or is it WC) by himself" or simply toilet or lavatory or....? Help!

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*blinks* okay that's an excellent point as well.

*bows* Thank you!

of course if we wrote and spoke in a way that left nothing to question it would sound weird and clinical

Yep. *g*

To be honest, a lot of the language we use doesn't make a lot of sense when you actually dissect it and try to take it literally. :-)

very true. and all the euphemisms can be really confusing. Think about all the ways you can say that someone died... passed on, etc

Exactly.

And then there's all the things that you Americans have taken and changed or missed bits out of. 'I could care' is one that particularly bugs me because it doesn't make sense. The English version 'I couldn't care less' does. *g*

it's weird how there are such differences in the language that way. UK vs US, with also Canadian and Australian changes too.

I've never heard anybody say "I could care" meaning "I couldn't care less." Huh, maybe it's a regional thing? Or something new? Although I have heard "I could care less," which makes no sense.

hmmm, I guess I've only heard 'I could care less' and "I couldn't care less" too. I suppose they mean the same thing, but it's odd how they sort of don't as well

I've heard "I could care less" in American tv/movies, and like unfeathered said, it makes little sense. If you could care less, surely it implies you do care a considerable amount?

well, if you're thinking about it logically.... I guess you're right.

But it can also mean "I could could care more, but I don't"

I've always been other the impression that 'I could care less' is just a mutation of the phrase, either through mishearing it or simply slurring or dropping the 'n't'. It happens sometimes, just in speaking situations. Like you might say 'a whole nother' which isn't something you'd write, but when you're speaking it sounds better. Like in French you say 'il y a' instead of 'il a', simply because it sounds better. The 'y' doesn't mean anything.

We have a bad habit around here to say 'I seen' instead of 'I saw' or 'I have seen', which seems to be a local dialect issue. It drives me nuts. Along with 'libary'. You cannot get a book from the libary, because there is no libary.

My mother is always going to 'pass the vacuum', because she's French-Canadian and that's how it translates.

As a Canadian, the spell-checker hates me. 'Theatre', 'favourite', 'towards'.

I love language and etymology. Hence the little rant there.

I love local phrases. Or they drive me nuts. When I moved to MN I couldn't get over the fact natives say "Can you borrow me a book?" instead of lend. Or the fact they say "I'm going to the store, do you want to come with?" dropping the 'me' that I would have put at the end.

Can you use a UK spellchecker instead?

I don't know if Firefox has a UK spellcheck option. I should look that up. In Word, I can't get the UK dictionary to stick. As soon as I close the programme, it switches back to the US dictionary.

I love looking up local slang for when I write characters. It really helps bring them to life. I remember struggling with Kirmani's voice until I changed some of his wording to a more Chicagga accent and it worked a whole lot better.

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donutsweeper.livejournal.com - 2008-10-05 04:01 (UTC) - Expand

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hellenebright.livejournal.com - 2008-10-05 21:24 (UTC) - Expand

Really? I've heard it all over the place in songs and tv! And that seemed to be what was meant!

in songs and tv

I wonder if it's one of those things that just hasn't made it to the middle of the country yet. Trends in language and... well pretty much all trends here seem to start on the coasts (where the media are centered) and work their way in.

I don't know, I grew up in NY and don't really know the phrase "I could care" either.

Do you really think that language works that way- NYC and LA as starting points and seeping in to the rest of the US from there?

Well, I was thinking if it was something really quite new--like in the past year or so--it might not have made it to either of the places you and I live now, yet.

When I was a kid I somehow got the impression that the middle of the country was several months to a year or two behind California in fashion (if it reached us at all). And there have been a couple of times when friends in California taught me new slang or usage that was happening there, and it was a few months before I noticed it being picked up by national media and then appearing in my local area. But I suppose with the internet that's all bypassed now, and it might go the other way as well. This is with slang, though, I don't think it necessarily applies to more formal language, which is much slower to change anyway.

I don't know, really! It might just be my kooky theory. :)

it makes a lot of sense- culturally they are they hot spots. The midwest and south are often kind of skipped over in the mindset of those types- there used to be this cartoon of the US, where NY and NYC were huge and the east coast too, there was this smushed little bit that was the midwest and then there was CA that took up most of the south and west.

I've seen that map! It's pretty funny. I just noticed a comment in somebody's journal that her friend in NYC called the whole middle of the country "Ohindianidahutah" or something like that. *g* With the media centered on the coasts, it's understandable. I don't mind, like Xander, I like the quiet. :)

I couldn't find the one you're talking about, but have we discussed this one before? I know travels_in_time and I have...

http://www.lukecole.com/Electoral%20Maps/Maps6.htm

Then there's this - hee

http://www.georgeglazer.com/archives/maps/archive-nyc/nyersideasm.html

Oh, and this is what Texans really think. *g*

http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/09/05/172-texas-is-bigger-than-everything/

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donutsweeper.livejournal.com - 2008-10-04 21:18 (UTC) - Expand

Makes sense! *g*

Hee. Half of my job is pointing out and explaining that stuff to learners of English. And they're always pointing out crazy things I haven't noticed before. Idiom, phrasal verbs, it's all kind of nuts! But it's what makes the language *live*.

I bet that's really fascinating- trying to explain it all, especially when there aren't rules or reasons!

All I can usually do is point it out and explain how it's used. It would take forever to research where it came from or why we do it! Though occasionally I'll find something and share.

I always feel so bad when we talk about phrasal verbs. All I can say is "you have to memorize the usage of each one" because "burn up" and "burn down" mean basically the same thing, and we say "mess up" but there's no "mess down" at all...

oh boy.

AS a kid, what I remember most was the confusion over find/found, bind/bound, mind/minded, etc. Bloody language always messing me up!

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