by Leslie Sholly | Jun 30, 2020 | Deep Thoughts, FIRE, language
There is no foreseeable future. Read it again: There is no foreseeable future. Now, this isn’t a grammar rant, though that irksome phrase cries out for one. Because, y’all, unless you believe in clairvoyance (and actually even if you do!), no one can...
by Leslie Sholly | Nov 25, 2012 | language, The South
Whoa! Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? It’s hard to believe that something many people consider “bad grammar” has such a fancy name. So what the hell am I talking about? From Wikipedia: “A modal verb (also modal, modal auxiliary verb, modal...
by Leslie Sholly | Nov 19, 2012 | language, Uncategorized
“It’s impossible to explain to a Yankee what `tacky’ is. They simply have no word for it up north, but my God, do they ever need one.” — from The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy I think that “tacky” may...
by Leslie Sholly | Nov 11, 2012 | language, The South
No snarky comments about the title, please! If you aren’t a lover of language and words like I am, you might not realize that all dialects have their own internal grammar and operate according to rules. And I’m going to write from time to time about the...