Why is English so inconsistent? (25)

1 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2009-02-04 01:33 ID:6Nu0wkRo

Take a sentence like "Isn't that it?"...

"Isn't" is a contraction of "Is not", right?

So why do we expand it to "Is that not it?", the not has moved position, shouldn't it be "Is not that it?", yet saying things that way either feels old fashioned or wrong.

Either the contraction should expand in the correct order, or we should change the contraction, i.e:

a) "Isn't that it?" = "Is not that it?"
or
b) "Is thatn't it?" = "Is that not it?"

English is illogical. :(

2 Name: Talentless : 2009-02-06 02:38 ID:WFilFys7

Is that it?

Seriously... Proper English can make sense, but all the colloquialisms make it illogical. I personally hate using contraction in the first place.

3 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2009-02-06 23:37 ID:CScxos+f

First grade: I before E except after C

Real life: LOL u nub

4 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2009-02-07 02:17 ID:IWSmTArU

We are plagued with the same word moving phenomenon in French. If possible, it is even more tricky than in English. For example:

Written: "Je te donne le livre." Word-by-word translation gives: "I to-you give the book."

Spoken: "Le livre, je te le donne." Now, the word order becomes "The book, I to-you it give."

5 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2009-02-09 10:43 ID:bUm1A9RG

Few languages make sense if literally translated into other languages. For instance, in English, we often use the construction "there is...", or "is there...?". The equivalent German phrase "Es gibt..." or "gibt es?/gibt's?" literally translates as "it gives..." and "gives it...?".

When learning another language, try not to translate back and forth in your head, just use it.

6 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2009-03-01 23:52 ID:oLyHyQAP

Engrish is ellatic because it can't make sentences without habing folms.

7 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2009-03-28 14:32 ID:ohxvPKt7

>>1
is not that it is what singaporeans like to say
it a not proper english

8 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2009-04-03 08:30 ID:bUm1A9RG

Because grammar books and prescriptive grammarians came along after language was invented. Languages do not have to conform to rules.

9 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2009-10-14 15:36 ID:Hcz5PYLG

> "Isn't" is a contraction of "Is not", right?'

It's no longer a contraction. It's a word of its own that originally was a contraction. Situation is the same as with "aren't I?" = "am I not?".

10 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2009-10-15 09:49 ID:nknkJpoQ

American and Britain have different usage of English... Damn it always confuses me.

11 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2009-10-15 09:57 ID:+zoust9R

>>7 That why we(including me) call it Singlish... We even have things such as lah meh etc.

12 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2009-11-10 15:02 ID:RiFZn1SD

Congratulations OP, for realizing English is very illogical. Casting aside the various silly rules to apply in many cases, the bane of English is making sentences flow logically, seem proper and wording it in a way that's overall pleasant to understand. Ever since the birth of the English language hundreds of years ago, the very nature of it has allowed for it to change rapidly, undergo changes in syntax, mingle with its previous rules and just fucking mutate in general, which is why the grammar of the English language is often an inconsistent clusterfuck.

13 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2009-11-13 11:22 ID:8eRhKZvw

>>12
And that's why we love it!

Whether or not something sounds natural is the ultimate rule, you know.

14 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2009-11-17 19:37 ID:ryXoUiFM

Take a look at every other language out there and study them, not for one semester but for years. They're all fucked.
You're fucked for posting that in English faggot.

If you don't like it, don't speak it.
Isn't that right?

15 Name: Scatterbrain : 2010-08-23 04:23 ID:mpjYyF1c

Languages are not always what you learnt at institutes or lessons abroad. There is nothing wrong to talk like that or go outside what is considered "ungrammatical" really.

16 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2010-09-04 00:36 ID:UIQtH7+j

Let me tell you. BIG PENIS. Every language is mad. For example, the languages that have genders for nouns, like German, or etc. Why should different non-living objects belong to different genders? It's crazy. That's why I speak English. Here with English, everyone feels good, and nobody get sick.

17 Name: Tchotchke : 2010-09-27 05:07 ID:OLvnpYEv

A language, in the most dynamic and general sense has the tendency to be immensely fluid in its capacities; it adapts to necessity, and is developed through habituation. As such, a language like English, which is in turn an amalgam of other languages of varying syntax, takes on a unique ability, that which allows the speaker to stretch the language around her meaning, rather than clunkily fitting the meaning into a sparse word or two. The Germanic sentence structures, which are as many as the countless Germanic tribes which invaded England throughout the early centuries A.D., combined with the Latinate influences, and later on direct French conquest, created an environment for our language to take a remarkably unique form in structure, and an even more unique approach to malleability.
It's the idea of the dictionary that suppresses its growth, solidifies its borders. The presence of dictionaries is not a cultural statement, it was a political one; the English, and to a lesser extent to start, the mainland Europeans, sought to unify her people by standardizing the language. Wessex and Wales would both speak the Queen's English. But I digress, at least somewhat; glib or otherwise, our language is pretty plastic.

tl;dr:

fuck you; you're the reason our world has digressed into its A.D.D.-ridden frenzy that can barely pay attention to more than 5 seconds of a shot on television without being bored. Christ, information won't magically pop out at you.

18 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2010-10-10 08:05 ID:f8Jkx++p

>>17
tl;dr

19 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2011-05-05 04:33 ID:lDxbRLDf

English is such a screwy language because it's a mix of several different languages that don't always play nice with each other. Plus the fact that it is quite old and spread out, meaning it has changed over the centuries and from region to region.

20 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2011-11-23 14:50 ID:xDPm4IaU

I have been practicing English.
But very difficult.
Is this sentence correct?

21 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2011-11-24 03:34 ID:ZCAs/198

>>20

But IT'S very difficult.

22 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2011-12-12 23:01 ID:Va8OFJ7i

>>20

>But very difficult.

Good job, but one thing is wrong. You should say this:

>But it's very difficult.

It's is a contraction of the words it and is, so you could also say it like this:

>But it is very difficult.

English is a stupid language. It does not always follow it's own rules. But you will get it eventually. Keep working at it!

Now for people who had English as a first language, think of the word quick and the word buick. (Which is the name of a car.)
Now think of all the grammar rules of English, then think of how they are actually pronounced, and apply them to quick and buick.
Mad yet?
Quick.
Buick.
That always makes me mad.

23 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2011-12-20 17:34 ID:Fkbv4Ant

>>22
>It does not always follow it's own rules. X
>It does not always follow its own rules. O

As always, one must consider the etymological derivations of words in order to further understand their funky English pronunciations. Buick is an odd little surname that underwent a number of spelling changes, whereas quick came from Old English cwic; in both cases, their spelling has converged while still maintaining distinct pronunciations.

Here's a funny little "poem" that demonstrates the true variability of orthographic letter combinations. Beware, as it does not always maintain end-rhyme.

24 Name: Anonymous Linguist : 2015-06-14 05:01 ID:aQEoi7lG

It's all the fault of those damn Normans.

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