08-23-2010, 04:40 AM | #31 |
eBook Enthusiast
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
|
|
08-23-2010, 04:48 AM | #32 |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 9,707
Karma: 32763414
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Krewerd
Device: Pocketbook Inkpad 4 Color; Samsung Galaxy Tab S6
|
I only use contractions in a "conversational" post. When i want my meaning really clear, I will use the full words.
Plus, we don't (except for that one, I hardly ever use "not") have that many contractions in Dutch and I find it ugly, usually. |
08-23-2010, 05:41 AM | #33 |
Country Member
Posts: 9,058
Karma: 7676767
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Denmark
Device: Liseuse: Irex DR800. PRS 505 in the house, and the missus has an iPad.
|
Other than Henry James, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Saul Bellow, Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck, Pearl S. Buck, Willa Cather, John Dos Passos and the like, that would be a good guess. But in my limited sample I don't see a lot of mimetic transcription of speech.
|
08-23-2010, 10:19 AM | #34 |
Cockney Sci-Fi Geek!
Posts: 472
Karma: 1463094
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Samsung Tab S 8.4", Samsung S6 Edge
|
I would agree with those that say that grammatically it is poor form to use contractions when writing formally ie: narrative, but acceptable when writing speech.
Personally I would not like to read an author who used contractions as part of their narrative, mind you I also hate slang talk and text speak and am noticing more and more the inability of younger people in London to form a sensible sentence. I am a right old fuddie duddie! |
08-23-2010, 12:13 PM | #35 | ||
Professional Adventuress
Posts: 13,368
Karma: 50260224
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: The Olympic Peninsula on the OTHER Washington! (the big green clean one on the west coast!)
Device: Kindle, the original! Times Two! and gifting an International Kindle
|
well who took 'em!? get 'em back!
Quote:
Quote:
|
||
08-23-2010, 12:21 PM | #36 |
Guru
Posts: 900
Karma: 779635
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: UK
Device: Kindle 3, iPad 2 (but not for e-books)
|
I' Shakespeare even, 'tis common to find contractions. Oft-found they have e'er been, no? Where is the evidence that they are uncommon?
|
08-23-2010, 12:32 PM | #37 |
My True Self
Posts: 3,126
Karma: 66242098
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Trantor, Galactic Center
Device: Galaxy Tab 2 7.0
|
In the book(s) The E. E. 'Doc' Smith Omnibus that I'm reading. And please, don't tell anyone else about the kind of cheap pulp SciFi that I'm reading.
It does have some contractions in the dialogs, but not all that much. I've found the same thing with some of the older (1930 - 1950/60) fiction that I've read. |
08-23-2010, 01:07 PM | #38 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 5,161
Karma: 81026524
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Italy
Device: Kindle3, Ipod4, IPad2
|
Quote:
|
|
08-23-2010, 01:17 PM | #39 |
Maratus speciosus butt
Posts: 3,292
Karma: 1162698
Join Date: Sep 2009
Device: PRS-350
|
Two of the Skylark books are public domain and available at Project Gutenberg.
|
08-23-2010, 02:09 PM | #40 |
eBook Enthusiast
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
|
That's largely, though, to make the words fit the metre of the blank verse that most of Shakespeare's plays are written in. (eg "e'er" is one syllable compared to two syllables for "ever"). If you look at examples of prose in Shakespeare, as opposed to poetry, contractions are much less common.
|
08-23-2010, 02:30 PM | #41 | |
My True Self
Posts: 3,126
Karma: 66242098
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Trantor, Galactic Center
Device: Galaxy Tab 2 7.0
|
Quote:
And didn't I ask you not to spread it around, Ben? Now everyone will know. Last edited by SameOldStory; 08-23-2010 at 02:33 PM. |
|
08-23-2010, 02:43 PM | #42 | |
Guru
Posts: 900
Karma: 779635
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: UK
Device: Kindle 3, iPad 2 (but not for e-books)
|
Quote:
I'm still not convinced that there is good evidence that the implicit assertion is true. |
|
08-24-2010, 12:03 PM | #43 |
eBook Enthusiast
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
|
Absolutely. Contractions were well and truly there by the later 19th century, when Dickens wrote. But look at Austen, who was writing about 80 or so years earlier - much less common there.
|
08-24-2010, 03:03 PM | #44 | |
Guru
Posts: 900
Karma: 779635
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: UK
Device: Kindle 3, iPad 2 (but not for e-books)
|
Quote:
Looking at Pride and Prejudice, you're right that contractions are rare (but "se'ennight" was new to me). Not all authors of that time are the same. These things follow fashions, and evolve. I remember reading in Lewis Carroll, things like sha'n't - which you don't see today. |
|
08-25-2010, 05:25 AM | #45 | |
Chocolate Grasshopper ...
Posts: 27,600
Karma: 20821184
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Scotland
Device: Muse HD , Cybook Gen3 , Pocketbook 302 (Black) , Nexus 10: wife has PW
|
Quote:
|
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
How do Americans feel about UK spelling? | Luke King | Writers' Corner | 363 | 12-03-2010 12:07 PM |
Unutterably Silly When Automatic Spelling Correction Goes Wrong | RickyMaveety | Lounge | 11 | 10-01-2010 09:40 AM |
Spelling Macro | PieOPah | Workshop | 36 | 12-13-2008 02:27 AM |