IsaacChase

Well a performative is a true statement that has nothing to do with the topic, followed by a lie about the topic. The true statement, "I want to be clear," qualifies the following statement, "I didn't take the cookie". Your examples are lies that are simply technically true.

It's good to know that's true, I've told that to so many people that I'd hate to find out now that it wasn't!

“In the first place, you’re way off when you start railing at things and people instead of at yourself. ” ― J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey One of my all time favorite books.

My first word, according to my mother, was "cookie". But of course I pronounced it "ookie".

I hate to say this, but I think the F word is the English word with the most meanings. It's definitely the word with the most diversity of uses.

I remember my German professor talking about how in German, you don't say, "I am cold," or "I am hot." In the German language, this refers to your sexual receptiveness, not your actual bodily temperature. "I am hot," is like saying "I am horny." What you say is "I have cold," or "I have hot". Ich habe kalt. Ich habe heiße Not having visited Germany myself, I have yet to try this out.

This is definitely helpful and something that I do when I can. It helps immensely if you already know the context when the words start flowing.

I think the real problem is most people don't care. A lot of people have seen the demonstration of how spelling has little impact on the reader understanding the message. It goes something like this: "I cnduo't bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt! See if yuor fdreins can raed tihs too." The problem is that even though a lot of the stuff people type is readable, it makes the writer look like a fool. But what is worse, there is a trend forming that people who take the time to write properly are being looked down as snobby, old fashioned or irrelevant. I mean, even our President starts his weekly address on Youtube with "Hi everybody." Not very presidential if you ask me.

This is one of many rules of our language that are fading from existence thanks to Facebook.

I've heard of this language trick lately and wondered what other people know about it. A performative is when someone is telling a lie but they word it in a way that makes it technically true, which helps the fibber speak the lie with more sincerity and therefor makes it easier to believe. An example: "I want to be clear, I didn't take the cookie." The speaker is telling the truth, that they want to be clear. This makes the lie easier to speak because there is a way that it can be viewed as truth. What do you guys know about this?

I've been hearing about this more and more lately, how English speakers use a lot more sarcasm than many others. I've heard lately that many European countries don't necessarily pick up on it, and it causes offense between people. I don't have much experience with Europeans, other than a couple I met from Holland. I'm a pretty sarcastic person and I didn't feel that that were barriers when we were talking. Anyone else?

That's great. I always liked Vonnegut: "True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country."

I definitely agree. People seem to just throw words around without caring about whether or not they are the correct words or if they even are words in the first place. This is how we get words like "hilarious" inserted into everyday conversation. It's more than annoying.

I don't have any experience with online tutorials, at least not what the author is talking about. But I can say that my son has had excellent results with using tutors over Skype. I can't recall the name of the service we have used, but it connects you with a native speaker and you have conversations for set amounts of time during the week. He was out of his immersion program for a year and it really helped him stay current with his Spanish.