Gotcha! Again! Why do you make me say it again and again, dear MrP? Lemme say it just one more time but hopefully the last time: you overvalue my English knowledge. Why for the heaven’s sake does a grown-ups’ conversation need to make every word come down to a letter’s level? You really disappointed me, again, MrP, and made me laugh.
Thank goodness you didn’t say “wit”. Mr P and wit do not go happily in hand. Also, Mr P and proof are not often bed partners.
He’s been spouting that “Molly isn’t non-native” all over the Internet for at least a year. He’s never had the guts to post proof though. Lets’ see if he comes up with it this time.
I am very happy to see your comment here. With my sincerest respect for you, I’d like to give a few personal opinions concerning the matter if I may.
We do have restrictions with languages. We learn grammar etc in order to become a better master of it. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean we should sit back into the niche of “best choice” to feel safe and comfortable. Language shouldn’t become our ruler or master but we should. Language is no more than our tongue so do not ever make it our master. We should sometimes take the guts to go a step further to make an even better and richer English without killing any possibility conveniently. If Americans didn’t have the guts to make a language of their own, you surely were never able to put the proudful line “native American English teacher” under every post you made.
I agree with you entirely that you should feel free to experiment with language. However, it is my firm belief that some experiments will be more successful and effective than others. Some experiments will be fun. Others will be creative and interesting. Some will flop miserably. It seems to me that you and Molly are frantically attempting to label typos as valid examples of usage. It is my opinion that this particular experiment with the word ‘complicate’ will end up as a flop and amounts to ‘much ado about nothing’.
I have also posted again in the other ‘complicated’ thread. Naturally, you are free to ignore or disagree with my opinion.
Sorry, but can you show us the proof of “complicate” typos in native-speaker texts? We’ve had frantic opinion from you and Mr P, but still haven’t had proof.
Nonetheless, your response is rather strange. ESL forums are full of threads where ESL students ask how they can learn to sound like a native speaker. Yet when I say I take you for a native speaker, you indignantly deny it and demand “proof”.
It’s not as if you make strenuous efforts to sound unlike a native speaker. You pass the “duck” test with flying colours.
So isn’t it rather odd, to demand “proof”? Where have you ever seen ESL students on other fora demand such, after a similar comment?
LOL! He’s hilarious. I suppose ESL fora are also full of women wanting to be men. The next time he uses male pronouns and “old chap” to address me, I’d better not ask for proof, right? Will I pass the gender duck test?
LOL, twice! Is Mr P backpedaling now?
Next time he says “you’re no more of a non-native speaker than I am”, I’ll take it as a complement. :lol:
Next, he has to explain why he uses “he” and “him” pronouns to talk about me. Can’t wait.
And would any non-native speaker feel pleased at being labeled “native-speaker” if the definition of that term was the one used by Mr P and his flock here?
In order to get the thread back to the point, after all this is supposed to be an English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms forum not a mud slinging, slagging off match, isn´t it?
True enough; but since the first page of this thread relates mostly to the limited competence of native speakers, it isn’t unreasonable to point out that M. himself belongs to that happy band.
It would be better of course to ask the authors of a hundred examples whether they would like to correct “complicate” to “complicated”; though the results would be the same (100% “yes”).
The point you miss is that writers are also readers. They know from their own reading experience that if they want other readers to understand potentially ambiguous terms, they have to mark them in some way – either with an explanation, or a “sic”, or inverted commas.
Find a non-biological “complicate” marked thus, and you may have found a valid example.
Hey, folks, is the subject “limited competence of native speakers” a taboo subject? Seems Mr P is saying that it’s a no-go area.
So now we’re in the area of “how to guide your readers”. Seems Mr P isn’t so sure it was a typo after all. Seems he’s saying “we’ll if it wasn’t a bloody typo, the writer should have let me know about it”. Hm, strange turnaround from the Pastor, there.