The overuse and misuse of certain adverbs

[Andromeda]

Wow.

That's what I tend to say when at a loss. Backwards, forwards, it works, and facial expressions determine what it means.

I think that that's one of my top most used words. So much meaning can be packed into those 3 letters. "Really" is another one for me. It's also very versatile. Sometimes I put the two together for extra emphasis.

 

[mkrnhr]

like: really? :)

 

[1984]

My irritant is when someone says I have a 'quick question'. How can you define 'quick' when you've already started the time clock just saying 'I have a quick question'?

 

[Approaching Infinity]

Wow.

That's what I tend to say when at a loss. Backwards, forwards, it works, and facial expressions determine what it means.

I think that that's one of my top most used words. So much meaning can be packed into those 3 letters. "Really" is another one for me. It's also very versatile. Sometimes I put the two together for extra emphasis.

Really? Like, wow!

 

[Keit]

My irritant is when someone says I have a 'quick question'. How can you define 'quick' when you've already started the time clock just saying 'I have a quick question'?

Maybe it's in the same family as "just a second" ;)

 

[Don Genaro]

My irritant is when someone says I have a 'quick question'. How can you define 'quick' when you've already started the time clock just saying 'I have a quick question'?

Haha! Usually when I here that I'm like: "Doesn't mean I have a quick answer"!

 

[Andromeda]

My irritant is when someone says I have a 'quick question'. How can you define 'quick' when you've already started the time clock just saying 'I have a quick question'?

And just as bad, "Can I ask you a question?"

 

[Olesya]

My irritant is when someone says I have a 'quick question'. How can you define 'quick' when you've already started the time clock just saying 'I have a quick question'?

Haha! Usually when I here that I'm like: "Doesn't mean I have a quick answer"!

and This is fun!

I don't seem to have this kind of problem, maybe, because I'm struggling trying to express in English what I want to say. These words just don't creep up. In Russian, these words that play a role as fillers in the conversations, are called the words–parasites. This topic is very interesting, osit.

 

[theos]

There have been a ton of examples of the misuse of the English language on this thread. And may I say that I'm quite sick of hearing the word ton lately. Like, "They give you a ton of food at that restaurant." or "You get a ton of options with this new car."

Somebody gag me with a ton of spoons, like, literally, naw' I'm sayin?

 

[Rich]

I don't seem to have this kind of problem, maybe, because I'm struggling trying to express in English what I want to say. These words just don't creep up. In Russian, these words that play a role as fillers in the conversations, are called the words–parasites. This topic is very interesting, osit.

Fillers is a good description of the words mentioned. On my travels I loved hearing the Turkish use of yani ("meaning...") and arabic yaʿni ("I mean") and wallāh ("by God"). I found their use to be almost musical.

Long list from different nationalities here: _https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filler_%28linguistics%29

Other fillers are the less sophisticated 'err', or 'urm' or a 'hmmm':) or starting a sentence with 'well' for no reason at all other than to take a momentary pause, or feel the need to fill the air with sound so that others are aware that that person is still talking.

 

[Carl]

It's like just basically a totally wrong use of the word, literally.

Another one is "you know", and I noticed it's contagious. I try to watch out for it, but I've learned it through osmosis...

It's like, you know, just basically a totally wrong use of the word, you know, literally.

You know, I've been like totally infected by this from the Sott radio shows. I mean like, basically they're just awesome filler words, you know?

The American and Liverpoodlian filler words combine in me to create some sick language abomination sometimes!

 

[Buddy]

I don't think my example is generally used as an adverb, but I've wondered for some time how the mindless overuse of the word "like" originated and (if there's a why) why.

"So she was like, 'like' as if I know,' and I'm like, wow, and then she's like, 'so I said to him, like, whatever you think because, like, I'm..." And on and on.

The tendency to use the word incorrectly does not seem confined to the ditzy; I've heard it many times from well-educated people on various newscasts or in videos.

"So, Barb, tell us, is it like hot out there?" Good grief! It's hot or it's not.

Could these things be linguistic markers used to measure how dumb we're becoming, or is the whanging in my head every time I hear "like" or one of chezza's -ly's just another case of a geezer failing to understand the young?

Hard to tell sometimes, but one thing seems to be for sure: there's more than plenty of folks out there who, when they find someone with a pet peeve or "button" like that, are helpful enough to mercilessly stomp on it so as to ensure you totally don't have a problem with it anymore. So, that's like, totally and basically it, for sure.

 

[griffin]

The inappropriate use or overuse of certain words and phrases is just one justification among several for employing editors, although of course people don't hire editors for their personal communications, or these days, most blog posts and comments online, including here. Since I work as an editor, I see the apparent inability of many people to self-edit their own scribbling as a sign of employment security.

Even those whose work consists mostly of writing, such as journalists, analysts and consultants, tend to fall into bad habits, and the inappropriate use or overuse of adverbs is merely one of those habits. People use some words as crutches, or parasitical fillers, as has been remarked previously here, and these misuses of language tend to be fads among the general population and its various subgroups.

Editors fight not only these fads but many other writing sins, including bad grammar and poor syntax, cliches, and country, region or industry specific tendencies to write text that is awful and hard to read.

Sometimes when I am given something to edit that's so terrible that I find myself losing the will to live, I ask the writer to go back through it and remove all unnecessary words. This usually improves it greatly.

 

[Buddy]

Sometimes when I am given something to edit that's so terrible that I find myself losing the will to live...

Gotta love an editor with a sense of humor. You're on my list, K? As soon as I can think of something to write.

 

[Sol Logos]

Local greetings are another interesting linguistic phenomena. When I went to the UK, I'm a fair dinkum Aussie mate y'know :), I was stumped by people instead of using a "hi" would say "all right?" Seems to skip the "how are you" entirely and basically leaves you less chance to say you're not alright. Although Australia's cliche greeting being "gidday mate" isn't much better, it could always be a bad day.