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Today's nomination for best Vocabulary and Syntax post of the day goes to Dexter for the precise use of "sycophant" in the Boys High School Soccer, Quiz Time topic, as it pertains to his perception of several posters and their relation to a.foley. Sycophant, of course, refers to a servile self seeking flatterer of influential or powerful people. More common modern day definitions might include "brown noser" or "suck-up". The most frequently used pronunciation is, more or less phonetically, "sick uh fent", accent on the first syllable.

lpaf

ps: My humble opinion only. Other nominations accepted on a first come first read basis.

"Y'all"

Tonight I'd like to extoll the proper use of the contraction, "y'all", and also stress the importance of proper apostrophe placement. No other term in American vocabulary is as regionally defining as the contraction of "you" and "all" to form "y'all". (The Minnesotan "youbet'cha" comes in a close second but is more narrowly defining in my opinion.) When you hear someone say "y'all are welcomed here any time" you know you are dealing with a true southerner and the word makes you feel comfortable. Like the scent of magnolias on a hot summer night, "y'all" wafts across you and sets a southern mood.

Wherever "you all" or "all of you" is used "y'all" can be freely substituted as a second person pleural pronoun or object.

It is of utmost importance, however to get the apostrophe in the right place, or otherwise the sense of the contraction is nullified. What does "ya'll" come from? From what source does the initial "ya" spring? In a word, it comes from a colloquial phonetic familiarity absent a basic understanding of the underlying orthography. Just write it right. "Y'all" -- from "you" and "all", the apostrophe taking the place of "ou", not "ya'll". Use it proudly but spell it right.

One guy's opinion.

lpaf

ps: Y'all come back now. Vocabulary and Syntax needs you.

well dude i hate to brng up AIM spk, th new way of tlkng on th net. Its going to chnge th way we tlk and rite. Vocab and sntx wl be of histrcl intrst only in a fw yrs.

English is tough enough and now we have AIM speak to learn?!?! What are y'all thinking?

Well, if you like elegant prose with superb writing I strongly recommend the Aubrey-Maturin series of novels by Patrick O'Brian. I have read and re-read these books and they are extraordinarily well done. You can pick a page at random and the paragraphs are so well crafted that they can stand alone. The movie, Master and Commander, is currently playing and is very decent -- but the novels have been called the best historical novels ever written, and are!!

christieh --

I've never read any Patrick O'Brian but will put him on my "to read" list. My favorite author at present is Edward Abbey (now deceased) -- an unapologetic southwestern anarchist. Black Sun is a short but beautiful read.

lpaf

Edward Abbey quotes

I don't know of any specific soccer quotes by Edward Abbey, but here are three that have at least an oblique reference to competition and athletics.

"When the situation is desperate, it is too late to be serious. Be playful."

"There is a fine art to making enemies and it requires diligent cultivation. It is not as easy as it looks."

"This is what you shall do: Be loyal to what you love, Be true to the Earth, and Fight your enemies with passion and laughter."

lpaf

This thread is obviously for the educated, adroit, and highbrowed. I hope I can be forgiven for posting where I do not belong. My comment is more of a giving of thanks. Had Big Brother and Oceania had its way, the Thought Police would be hauling each and every one of us off to Room 101 for Newspeak violations. I love democracy and capitalism.

I wonder what Edward Abbey thougth of Jack Kerouac and his friends?

pt and R!C --

Now we're getting somewhere. Kerouac, Orwell and Abbey referenced in three consecutive posts! R!C (I've replaced the 1 with an exclamation point you'll note -- too much work to raise my right little finger from the shift key I've decided) you're right at home here -- self deprication is a highly regarded modus operandi . As for Abbey's opinion of Kerouac, pt, you must be a closet Abbey fan tossing a slow pitch softball for rhetorical purposes. Abbey was a reluctant intellctual more inclined to hard work the average beat author. His thoughts on Kerouac showed ambivalence but admiration:

"Jack Kerouac, like a sick refrigerator, worked too hard at keeping cool and died on his mama's lap from alcohol and infantilism."
~
"A shelf of classics for our young adults: Tolkien, Hesse, Casteneda, Kerouac, Salinger, Tom Robbins, and _The Last Whole Earth Catalog,"

For anyone interested, a good Edward Abbey website (including a list of Abbey quotes and quote search engine) is listed here. I'm particularly fond of his advice on how to avoid catching pleurisy. We're all victims of our personal experiences, you know.

http://www.abbeyweb.net/abbey.html

The Monkeywrench Gang is probably his most popular book.

lpaf