(no subject)

[tesla]

Why do people so frequently misuse homophones? "Tenants" (should have been "tenets") and "adverse" ("averse") both came up today, both used incorrectly by very literate folks. I suppose that I can understand doing this in a casual forum (e-mail to peers, etc.), but one of them was in a presentation to 50 people. I'm always surprised when people can't hear the difference between these words when they're spoken, and hence surprised when people use them incorrectly in either written or verbal forms.

What is the etiquette surrounding this? I'll certainly point out the one in the presentation, because the person involved will appreciate it. But in a business setting, when do people want to be corrected and when would they rather be humored? I typically err on the side of gentleness, because in my world right now, relationships are more important than absolute precision.


Mmm - 15-year Laphroaig. Yummy.

Comments

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

I've been up way too long, and my memory isn't what it was once (actually, it's never been what it was once), but I'm not sure 'mnemonics' is the word yoh should be using here. The examples you give are almost homonyms, depending upon where one learned to speak English.

I tend to think of Every Good Boy Does Fine, or such like, as a mnemonic.

Of course, I'm probably violating etiquette by saying anything at all. minnehaha K has a pithy and funny saying about the fannish tendency to correct others, but I can't remember it.

I'm sure it's all due to the Laphroaig.

[tesla-aldrich.livejournal.com]

You're so right. I was actually looking for "homophones" (and have now corrected it).

And I wish I could say that I had planned it this way - I didn't - but what a perfect test case: I was momentarily embarrassed but my error, but am really glad to have the right word now.

Just wish that I could be sure that other people would feel the same way.

[echoegami.livejournal.com]

ah! well done, and here i look silly because i am so slow to type and you've since made your corrections.

Homophone that drives me crazy

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's not a homophone, which is why it really drives me crazy.

When I first came to work in OS development here in the Great White North, I more or less constantly gritted my teeth over the pervasive use (at my place of employment) of the phrase assembler pneumonics.

It ain't a word, and the root alone should be a major clue that, in the words of Inigo Montoya, You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

And, to get more or less back on subject, I never tried to correct the miscreants. Since they had seen fit to embed it in several approved design documents before I arrived, it didn't seem worth the bother.

On new design inspections, however, I get to allow my pedantic nature free reign. (Oops - I may have done it, again).

Re: Homophone that drives me crazy

[tesla-aldrich.livejournal.com]

And truly, tenant/tenet and adverse/averse aren't homophones either (particularly the latter), but either people are lazy with their pronunciation, or they have imperfect hearing, or they don't visualize words upon hearing them, or SOMETHING, and so these are perceived as homophones.

Your example is particularly egregious, of course, by virtue of not being a word at all. :)

I'm trying to envision what "assembler pneumonics" might be - software that's buggy, wherein the "bug" is viral pnuemonia? A new disease commonly known as "factory-worker's lung"?

I, too, thoroughly appreciate the guardians of language. Yes, it's a living body of knowledge, but let's use that property intelligently: let's create new words and new constructions where the old ones are weighed and found wanting, rather than doing so from mere laziness.