(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

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.