Out rage

cannabineer said:

I have become aware of a new, powerful and destructive force in the assault on literacy.

It is the spellcheck feature in our text communication devices.

Recently I fingertyped “motorglider” and “underlighting” onto my phone, and the spellcheck (do not call it a spell check) required me to override (not over ride) the suggestion that I split the words.
In submissions by supposed journalists, the frontline troops in defending orthography and syntax, I have recently witnessed a number of terms I was taught as “one word” being blithely split into spaced components.

The spellcheck and autocorrect features built into the most used software are actively teaching users wrong things about how stuff is spelled. I worry that this might exert evolutionary pressure upon modern English, and I imagine other languages stand on a similar precipice.

Please bring other examples andor counterarguments.*

*that last word was autobisected by you-know-what.

Click to expand...

tyler.durden said:

Hey, I still can't get over the fact that language bends to the masses, instead of the other way around. Take 'literally', enough people misused (mis used?) the word to the point where dictionaries just said fuck it, now it means the opposite of what it meant last edition. If enough morons called the color red ''blue", that light wavelength (wave length?) range would then be officially blue, and both red and blue would correctly referred to as blue. That's an issue. Now that literally and figuratively are synonymous, how do we convey the concept of (the old meaning) literally? I've been substituting the word actually. But it is only a matter of time before idiots start misusing that, then where do we go? I want language to be prescriptive and not descriptive, and we should rise to learn objective meanings instead of bending words to suit the lowest common denominator. This shit makes me see red, and feel blue. Or vice-versa. I don't even know anymore...

Click to expand...