We all know them. They are the grammar police. The person in your circle of friends or maybe on your Facebook feed that can’t ignore mix-ups like irregardless and regardless or vica versa and vice versa. For that matter, maybe you are that friend. The misuse of words, whether it be accidental or a true misunderstanding of the meaning, makes the hairs on your neck stand alert and makes you ready to proclaim a guilty sentence and subsequent punishment on any offender. This interesting and slightly humorous topic came from io9.com in their article, “Trying To Stop Words From Changing Their Meanings Is “Literally” Useless.”
What if the word is being used in a definitive way that is wrong but the masses have decided it should be the definition ir..err regardless (pun totally intended)? Some English-snobs are concerned that the misuse of “literally” to mean “really,” will do just that. But is it the first occurrence of that happening?
What, if any, role has the evolution of natural language processing and semantic technology had in this phenomenon?
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in taxonomies, metadata, and semantic enrichment to make your content findable.
