Redundancy - Good for Data, Bad for Grammar. :0)

[kjv1611]

We received an email at work, and I thought you folks would get a kick out of it. It follows:
interesting statement: (text formats and bracketed changes by me)

We are doing a major upgrade to the system and will advise everyone when it is available and provide new access information.

We anticipate that we will be up-and-running on the new version of [AppName] next Tuesday [highlight]morning at the beginning of the day[/highlight].

Should you have any questions, please contact [JimBob] [blue]on[/blue] X[1234] or [GleefulSherry] [blue]on[/blue] X[4321]

Then after I shared that with my group at work, a supposed English major replied with:

Redundancy [highlight]abounds up[/highlight] in this piece.

Yeah, I pointed the same in her email, and she replied:

That’s actually correct – if you consider slang correct. Don’t get me started, IT nerd.

Yeah, feel the love. [WINK] The members of our department often pick at one another.

'Course, that does get me wondering: I don't even recall hearing "abounds up" as any form of slang. Any ideas what she's talking about?

Of course, I guess the other part she referred to was "next Tuesday", but I don't think that is NEAR as obvious as the other.

Another oddity, I think, is the "on" instead of "at" for listing phone extensions. Is either equally correct, or should it be "at", or am I just totally off my rocker?



--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[Opieo]

Why not just say,
"You can reach me by phone"
If needed, the sentence can be amended:
" at x2234"
Or does that not really remove the on / at aspect when including the extension?

~
Chuck Norris is the reason Waldo is hiding.

 

[kjv1611]

Or does that not really remove the on / at aspect when including the extension?

Not really.

But thanks for the attempt.

And actually I would say it puts you on a vote in the "at" camp.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[ncotton]

Opieo

Why not just say,
"You can reach me by phone"

You could do that... you could also say "I'm a jellybean, call me Fred", if you really wanted to.

Neil J Cotton
Technical Consultant
Anix

 

[LizSara]

That would make more people pay attention to the email

"Whoever battles with monsters had better see that it does not turn him into a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you." ~ Nietzsche"

 

[vanka25]

The London site is ON Jasmine Avenue

This seems to hold true when you are talking about a more general address; consider:

The London site is AT 123 Jasmine Avenue.

Once a specific address is given, the street number for example; you are no longer just on the street, you are at a specific location on said street.

Since phones used to be stationary, the phone number was probably seen as almost an address (I'm guessing here as I more or less grew up with cell phones); hence in my area I can be reached on my phone ("by phone" actually sounds more correct to me) or at 555-5555.

 

[AnotherHiggins]

You could just avoid the situation:
"Should you have any questions, please contact [JimBob] or [GleefulSherry]. Their extensions are [1234] and [4321], respectively."

You were right in the first place.... there is no need for the word "Up" in the abounds reference. Infact, it doesn't actually make any sense.

As far as "not making any sens", that's just plain wrong. As has been stated, it is slang. Irregular perhaps, but it does "make sense" when the slang is taken into consideration.

The original point wasn't that the "up" was superfluous, it was the the "up" was redundant. I still don't see it as redundant.

As for "on" vs. "at" a phone number, I'm pretty sure it is a UK vs. US thing. So I agree with Neil, who said neither is wrong.

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[ncotton]

As far as "not making any sens", that's just plain wrong. As has been stated, it is slang. Irregular perhaps, but it does "make sense" when the slang is taken into consideration.

When I said it doesn't make sense, I didn't mean using "up" confuses me so much I dont know what was trying to be said. I mean, not only is it superfluous, it doesn't seem to have anycontext with the word Abounds, unless, as some one refered to "up in the peice" as like the Ghetto euphormism (Up in this house, up in this place"), however, I cant image anyone actually writing in that "sense" using the word abounds.

Like you wouldn't hear a prosecuter in court saying

"My client excorcised his right to self defence based on the discrimanative jestures Mr Smith made and the condasending way Mr Smith got all up in his face."

It makes sense, but as a sentense, it doesn't make "social sense"

Like

"Wooooohoooooo DUUUUUUUUDDDDDEEEEE. Thanks for the Nobel Prize. I'm SSOOOO STOKED"

Neil J Cotton
Technical Consultant
Anix

 

[kjv1611]

Good point.
I'll be sure to point that out to my coworker.
just kidding.
[LOL]

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[Peregrinus]

Late to the party, but a friend of mine pointed out something odd when they googled me. Where before, all the returns were me-related, this time there was one that wasn't.

EdwardMartinIII wrote:

It's a little known fact that slang was invented by Jonah Rapp in 1968, based on his international best-selling book on grammer: "Sling, Slang, Slung -- How Verbs Need to be Fixed".

Alas, I wasn't even born yet in 1968, let alone of an age to publish. That does sound like a book I might tackle, though, which is scary...

--Jonah

 

[LeeMcCauslin]

Redundancy abounds". Where does it abound? "Up in this piece". That makes perfect sense to me and I have heard the phrase used that way many times. In a playfully mocking email (which I believe was the original scenario) that doesn't seem out of place to me at all.

You can reach me at x1234 or on my cell if you would like to discus it further. ;-)



=======================================
"Dyin'? Boy, He can have this little life any time He wants to. Do Ya hear that? Are ya hearin' it? Come on. You're welcome to it, Ol' Timer. Let me know You're up there. Come on. Love me, hate me, kill me, anything. Just let me know it... I'm just standin' in the rain talkin' to myself." Cool Hand Luke

 

[kjv1611]

In a playfully mocking email

Yeah, probably was being silly, I've no doubt.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[SantaMufasa]

It's a little known fact that slang was invented by Jonah Rapp in 1968, based on his international best-selling book on grammer: "Sling, Slang, Slung -- How Verbs Need to be Fixed".

Edward, you're kidding about that book title, right? There is no reference to either the book title or the author. If it was an international best seller, you'd think it would appear somewhere (Amazon, Google, et cetera).


Maybe the problem is that it's a book on grammer instead of a book on grammar. <grin>

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]
“Beware of those that seek to protect you from harm or risk. The cost will be your freedoms and your liberty.”

 

[KornGeek]

I'm calling B.S. on the origins of "Slang" coming from a book in the 1960s.


According to

http://www.m-w.com

Etymology: origin unknown
Date: 1756

According to

http://www.dictionary.com

[Origin: 1750–60; orig. uncert.]

 

[AnotherHiggins]

It was a joke. Edward didn't say that the word slang came from that book, he said that "slang was invented by Jonah Rapp".

Though it kills the humor, let's dissect the joke....

Blame rap "music". It is where people get these ridiculous affectations of "lingo". When higher technology started out, there were only very smart people involved in it.
Now that it is rampant, and transmografied, the unwashed masses are equating "hip" with knowledgable "patois". Hah!

I replied with a sarcastic, "True. There was no slang before rap."

That set up EdwardMartinIII's line that "slang was invented by Jonah Rapp," giving false credence to Michael's silly claim that we can "blame rap[gray]p[/gray]" for slang.

I suspect slang has been around since very early in language's history.

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[tab][red]The plural of anecdote is not data[/red]

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[Peregrinus]

And I was playfully saying I did no such thing, as I wasnt' born yet and have never found any evidence of another person bearing my name in the records of humanity available to me.

We know of Latin and Hebrew and Greek and Aramaic slang. I have every reason to believe Egyptian and Assyrian had slang, too. Abusing language is as old as language itself. *heh*

--Jonah

 

[gbaughma]

That's actually correct – if you consider slang correct. Don't get me started, IT nerd.

I hope that the two of you have a good relationship.... depending on who said that to ME, I would either be quite insulted or laughing my tail off.



Just my 2¢
-Cole's Law: Shredded cabbage

--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[KornGeek]

Sometimes it helps to go back and re-read things in context.

 

[Michael52x]

I've made a mistake. I meant todays verbage of terms {not the start of} that are reflected in our society's changing discourse.
Everyone in most situations use's abreviated terms for a growing number of references to commonly known things.
Texting is analogous to this as it has created a "quick speak" {that I could not even try to "textify"} that is used vocally as well. Every generation has it's slang, and some terms carry through the ages. I doubt text-talk will last, because indecipherable babble is un-necessary.
What does giving something an alternative label really mean?


"Impatience will reward you with dissatisfaction" RMS Cosmics'97