Corrections

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Antea
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Corrections

Postby Antea » 2017-07-20, 19:29

Hello, I just wanted to ask about corrections or explanations given in relation with the native language. I am not a teacher, and because of that I don't know if you really appreciate that the corrections reflect the minimum errors, or all the possibilities of writing the message. I say that, because sometimes there are different possibilities of writing a sentence, and I don't know if it's really necessary to give all of them.

I am just asking because I'm not myself a prescriptivist, but I want to try to give useful corrections or explanations.

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Re: Corrections

Postby IpseDixit » 2017-07-20, 19:51

If a sentence sounds clunky, I always propose more native-sounding options because I think that a huge part of learning a language is not just getting the grammar right but also knowing (or at least trying to deduce) what sounds native and natural and what sounds awkward.

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Re: Corrections

Postby Antea » 2017-07-20, 20:39

Yes, I think that's a good point. Sometimes it's difficult, because in Spanish (of Spain) we use a lot of slang, in our everyday conversations :hmm: .

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Re: Corrections

Postby linguoboy » 2017-07-20, 22:32

It's not even necessarily a matter of "slang" per se. It's just that spoken varieties tend to develop fixed expressions for certain situations and using something even a little bit different can sound really out of place.
"Richmond is a real scholar; Owen just learns languages because he can't bear not to know what other people are saying."--Margaret Lattimore on her two sons

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Re: Corrections

Postby kevin » 2017-07-21, 8:40

If you're talking about corrections in this forum, I generally strike through and mark grammatical errors, spelling errors and other things that are simply wrong in red. Things that are grammatically correct, have the right meaning, but people just wouldn't say I mark in orange and offer an alternative in brackets. Sometimes, if you can say something the way it is written, but it's just slightly unusual, I even just offer the altenative in brackets without marking the original at all.

Of course, if anyone has suggestions how to improve this, I'll be happy to hear them, but I think this makes sure that I don't make someone believe that my preferred way of saying something is the only correct way.

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Re: Corrections

Postby Antea » 2017-07-21, 9:09

kevin wrote:Things that are grammatically correct, have the right meaning, but people just wouldn't say I mark in orange and offer an alternative in brackets. Sometimes, if you can say something the way it is written, but it's just slightly unusual, I even just offer the altenative in brackets without marking the original at all.


Yes, that was the problem I was referring. Something that is grammatically correct, but people wouldn't say or doesn't sound natural. Thank you all for the suggestions.

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Re: Corrections

Postby OldBoring » 2017-07-30, 21:12

That's what I proposed long time ago but nobody agreed with me: a standard correction system throughout Unilang.

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Re: Corrections

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-07-31, 5:28

OldBoring wrote:That's what I proposed long time ago but nobody agreed with me: a standard correction system throughout Unilang.

I'm confused. Who said anything about a standard correction system throughout UniLang on this thread?

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Re: Corrections

Postby kevin » 2017-07-31, 11:35

vijayjohn wrote:I'm confused. Who said anything about a standard correction system throughout UniLang on this thread?

OldBoring.

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Re: Corrections

Postby OldBoring » 2017-08-15, 9:38

vijayjohn wrote:
OldBoring wrote:That's what I proposed long time ago but nobody agreed with me: a standard correction system throughout Unilang.

I'm confused. Who said anything about a standard correction system throughout UniLang on this thread?

But a standard correction system would help. If we had guidelines for how to signal mistakes, how to signal corrections, how to signal suggestions, how to signal things that are not wrong but don't sound native, etc.

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Re: Corrections

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-08-15, 15:51

OldBoring wrote:
vijayjohn wrote:
OldBoring wrote:That's what I proposed long time ago but nobody agreed with me: a standard correction system throughout Unilang.

I'm confused. Who said anything about a standard correction system throughout UniLang on this thread?

But a standard correction system would help. If we had guidelines for how to signal mistakes, how to signal corrections, how to signal suggestions, how to signal things that are not wrong but don't sound native, etc.

But why would we need one when we already have a whole thread dedicated to explaining how we choose to correct other users?

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Re: Corrections

Postby kevin » 2017-08-16, 19:03

Maybe that we have a whole thread about it is exactly what suggests that a standard could be useful. On the other hand, I don't think I've ever had problems understanding corrections because of the colour code they used.


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