Monday, February 10, 2014

A List of Grammar Terrorists

I have written at great length about people who go about correcting other people's grammar when they themselves are wrong. That really gets my goat.

As I have said many times before, it is not polite to correct other people's language even when they have flouted the rules of grammar. But when they are not wrong in their language and what they say is perfectly correct and grammarians are agreed on this, the person who seeks to correct them ought to be pilloried and made an example of.  I call such people grammar terrorists. Just as Islamic terrorists aren't really following the true teachings of Islam, grammar terrorists aren't following the rules of grammar. They slam others, laugh at them but they themselves are really wrong.

Just who are these grammar terrorists? Here's a list with links to all my blog posts on grammar terrorism that I've posted on this blog arranged in chronological order . The list is divided into different categories for easy reading. I will of course update this post every time I write a fresh blog post about a grammar terrorist. I have a very broad definition of a grammar terrorist. Anyone who criticises another person's grammar or command of English when he himself is in error is a grammar terrorist. Many of us are but many of us are not language teachers. A grammar terrorist has to be someone whose job makes language correctness on his part all the more important.
EDITOR: I have included in this list other posts that deal with the use of language. These posts may have nothing to do with grammar terrorists but if they relate to language, I've included them here and if I can't classify them under any of the subheadings, I'll place them under "MISC".

LIST OF MY POSTS ON GRAMMAR TERRORISTS AND LANGUAGE ERRORS MADE BY OTHERS

1.   TEACHERS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

A. Singapore's Speak Good English Movement
Links:
Our Language Watchdog's Bark
Why Singapore's Speak Good English Movement Should be Scrapped
An Appeal to the Ministry of Education
STICK NO BILLS
MOE's Language Expert Blunders Again
Proof that MOE's English experts ruin students' English
The Cowardice of Our Language "Experts"
AND THE TWO SHALL BE ONE
Teachers from Hell
How to Spot a Rotten Language Teacher
Singapore's Language Experts - the Nation's Disgrace
MOE's Joke Book
MOE's Joke Book Part 2
The Blind Leading the Blind
MOE's Language Experts Need Voice Training
Ultra-CRAP!
The Yap-Soh-Pee-Khoo gang on the English language
Confusion Over Concord
A Matter of Degree
The Unrepentant Speak Good English Movement is Back!
Why I Excoriate the Speak Good English Movement
Folks, they're back!!!
IT'S OFFICIAL - SINGAPORE HAS LOST TO MALAYSIA
Are you scared of teachers who can ruin you?
The Speak Good English Movement Blunders for the Umpteenth Time
Speak Good English Movement - where every sentence is wrong
Singapore - Excellent in All Things EXCEPT...
I urge the Speak Good English Movement to do the only decent and honourable thing
TAKE this!
The Speak Good English Movement Blunders Again
Endless Stupidity
Singapore's Illiterate Movement
They Can't Even Get the Title of Their Conference Right.
Why Singapore's language 'experts' make up their own erroneous grammar rules.
THE MOST UNKINDEST CUT OF ALL
A Perfect Singapore?
When it can be embarrassing to receive a national award from Singapore
Wrong Again!!!
Breaking News: The Speak Good English Movement is finally disbanded
Singapore's English Movement in error again
The Speak Good English Movement's new grammar book
The Speak Good English Movement's new grammar book PART 2
Why pick on shopping centres in Singapore?
The Chairman of the Speak Good English Movement blunders again and again - PART 1
The Chairman of the Speak Good English Movement blunders again and again - PART 2
Fools or Liars?
Singapore's Good English Award in Bad English
Should Singapore Schools Teach English Grammar?
The endless mistakes of the Speak Good English Movement
Why the Speak Good English Movement harms Singapore
SMU - 20 years of language errors
FINALLY, THE SPEAK GOOD ENGLISH MOVEMENT LISTENS TO ME. BUT IT'S TOO LITTLE TOO LATE
When technocrats and mathematicians rule

B.  Ludwig Tan, Vice-Dean of the School of Arts and Social Sciences, SIM Univerity and consultant to the Speak Good English Movement, Singapore.
NOTE: Ludwig Tan is now the Dean of the School of Humanities and Behavioural Sciences, Singapore University of Social Sciences

Links:
Consultant to the Speak Good English Movement writes.
Speak Good English Movement's Consultant Strikes Again
What's wrong with Singapore's educators?
What's wrong with Singapore's educators? Part 2
Why I exposed Ludwig Tan's Errors
Why I exposed Ludwig Tan's Errors  Part 2 
What's in a name?
When everything a Singaporean says is always deemed to be wrong
THE MOST UNKINDEST CUT OF ALL
Why the Speak Good English Movement harms Singapore

C. Adam Brown, teacher in Singapore's National Institute of Education and writer of books on Singlish
Links:
What's wrong with Singapore's educators?
What's wrong with Singapore's educators? Part 2
TAKE this!

D.  Jon Gingerich who, I believe, runs a school on language, style and usage.
Links:
Unlearned Pedants Part 1 - Jon Gingerich
Unlearned Pedants Part 1 - Jon Gingerich (final segment)

E.  A Schoolteacher in Singapore
Links:
Are local school kids less able than foreign ones?

F.  Mind Stretcher - a language school in Singapore
Links:
Teacher, teach thyself.

G.  Mind Matters - a language school in Singapore
Links:
English Matters!

H.  Learning Lab (only mentioned in passing)
Links:
Confusion Over Concord

I.  Anglo-Chinese School (ACS)
Links:
How America Confuses the World
Singapore School Anthems Part 1
When school principals in Singapore err

J.   Marymount Convent School
Links:
Singapore School Anthems Part 2

K.  Raffles Girls' School (RGS)
Links:
Singapore School Anthems Part 2

L. Stalford - a private school in Singapore
Links:
Embarrassing Ads by Private Schools

M. Pat's Schoolhouse
Links:
An Ad by Pats' Schoolhouse
Pat's Schoolhouse again!
Pat's Schoolhouse keeps getting its grammar wrong
Good Lord! It's the Pat's Schoolhouse ad again.

N. Methodist Girls' School
Links:
When school principals in Singapore err

O. National University of Singapore.
Links:
One's background does not matter but grammar does
Illiterate Graduates?

P. Eye Level Learning Centre
Links:
National Errors

Q. The Learning Vision
Links:
Not another preschool ad!

R. Singapore Management University
Links:
SMU - 20 years of language errors

S. Nanyang Technological University
Links:
When a linguist writes ungrammatically


2.   NEWSPAPERS

A.  The Straits Times
Links:
When the Straits Times refuses to publish your letter.
Why Can't the Straits Times Get It Right?

B.   The New Paper
Links:
You Can Go Crazy But You Can't Go Toilet

C.   High (a luxury fashion magazine)
Links:
When the Gazelle Trips

D. The Vulcan Post
Links:
AMOS YEE'S "GRAMMAR ACCORDING TO A SCHOOL DROPOUT"

E. Singapore Tatler
Links:
Glamour without Grammar

F. The Washington Post
Links:
Liberal Loonies Linguistically Trumped

G. A Malaysian Newspaper
Links:
No, the humble comma did nothing


3.   OTHERS

A.  The spokesman of City Harvest Church (I place this in a separate category because of Singaporeans' interest in anything that City Harvest does)
Links:
City Harvest on the English Language

B.  The man on the Chai Chee omnibus
Links:
Cooking up imaginary language rules
Fetch a grammarian!!!
Hypercritical or Humorous?
Sex and the Church

C. Statesmen
Links:
Chan Chun Sing's Error

D. The clueless masses
Links:
Brouhaha in Singapore over Nothing
Brouhaha in Singapore over Nothing Part 2
Brouhaha in Singapore over Nothing Part 3
When Ignoramuses Become Grammar Nazis
Does 'a while' always mean a while?

E. The Land Transport Authority
Links:
Illiteracy in Singapore - the Land Transport Authority
Why pick on shopping centres in Singapore?
LTA's illiterate poster

F. TEDxNUS
Links:
TEDxNUS, mind your language!!!

G. Oliver Kamm, columnist with the Times.
Links:
A Kamm-ouflaged Pedant

H. Merriam-Webster
Links:
Don't buy a Webster's Dictionary!
Why the Merriam-Webster Dictionary should not appeal to you
MERRIAM, MERRIAM, QUITE CONTRARY - MERRIAM-WEBSTER DICTIONARY IS WRONG AGAIN

I. Grammarly, a grammar checker app
Links:
Ungrammatical Grammarly

J. Quora
Links:
Links:
Hardly a Humble Celebration - Not an error but an example of possible linguistic change.


4.   MISC.

I am squeezing in here some posts that deal with the language but aren't really about grammar terrorists. If you are interested in having a look at the other posts on the language which I might have missed in this list, you may click on "Language" in the right column of this blog under "Labels".

Of Spanish Rain and Asian Flood
Singapore Needs the Bard
Prof Bas Aarts is wrong about the subjunctive mood.
Why the green great dragon can't exist.
Unable Inability
ABBA was wrong?
Is the Queen's English really the Queen's English?
Grammar is just a game
Puzzling prepositions? Why grammarians should stop being contrary.
Let's talk about old age.
What the dickens!
Tense because of tenses
Mr Goh Chok Tong's Facebook post
What Lucien Wong, Singapore's Attorney General, wrote
Should Singapore Schools Teach English Grammar?
Should English grammar be taught again after 60 years?
Adverbs Aren't Adjectives
A Conjunct is not a Conjunction
An Adverb is not a Preposition


How to Excel in English at PSLE and Beyond

Rule 1
Rule 2 Example 1
Rule 2 Example 2

2 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. It's hard to say anything on Twitter. There's a limit on how many words you can publish.

      Delete