Old Navy's UM gear made the news. Because they forgot the apostrophe.
http://shine.yahoo.com/event/fallfashion/grammar-fail-on-old-navys-college-t-shirts-uh-oh-2531551/
Begs the question -- does the banner have an apostrophe? Does all UM use of the phrase always have it?
The banner reads "GO BLUE."
I hate to break it to you,
I hate to break it to you, but in modern day language "begs the question" does mean "raises a question". Depending on the context it can refer to the saying above or the logical fallacy.
Just because everyone
Just because everyone misunderstands the phrase doesn't cause the phrase to change meaning.
I'm not even an armchair
I'm not even an armchair linguist, but when everyone understands a phrase a certain way, that's kind of the definition of meaning.
(For the record, I'm also bummed about "begging the question" losing its function as a precise philosophical descriptor, but so goes language, I guess.)
Exactly. Almost all changes
Exactly. Almost all changes in a language result from it being bastardized, and these changes occur all the time. Examples are endless. Just think of what people must have thought when some kids started using "cool" as it's most commonly used today. Stupid kids don't even know that "cool" is a statement about the temperature. Some change in spelling or pronunciation or grammar, like English dropping gender, are all wrong according to some already established language. We're just speaking middle English poorly, and they in turn spoke old English poorly, and so on and so on. The line where something is still wrong or has become established enough to be recognized is a matter of opinion. It's insane to say that EVERYONE (or anything close to everyone) misunderstands some phrase like "begging the question". I was a philosophy major and it doesn't bother me when people say "begging the question" as it's most often used nowadays. "Could care less" though is annoyingly ignorant, but, that's just like...my opinion, man.
Stephen Fry
I refer you to writer and actor Stephen Fry. I also recommend the whole podcast from his site (it's 30 min or so).EDIT: Just in case the video isn't working... Stephen Fry Video
Warning: My imagination is inefficient.
How are you defining "Modern
How are you defining "modern-day language?" If your definition is "The way people communicate on the internet," then the floodgates are open for all kinds of craziness.
English professors, as a rule, hate this abuse of "begging the question."
That is not the only thing
That is not the only thing English professors hate.
LOL
LOLWUT? As another example, just because everyone says "I could care less," that doesn't change the meaning of the word could to couldn't.
Different interpretation of that example
The phrase "I could care less" is a perfect example of a phrase that has changed meaning because of its common usage. Unless they're being intentionally obtuse, very few people would hear the phrase in context and take it to mean "there are different ways in which I could be more apathetic." Rather, the vast majority of people will understand the intended message of "I really don't care at all." And this is just what meaning is -- the intended information is easily extracted from the utterance by the intended audience.
You can say that this particular construction lacks art and is contradictory in an unreflective way, and you can strenuously avoid using it (and I'll be with you). But to say that the phrase lacks meaning because it doesn't adhere to proper English, as handed down from the mountain by Shakespeare at the beginning of time, is false.
/Stephen Fry still hates me for being a pedant
thats an fine looking-shirt
thats an fine looking-shirt to i,
Why does the t-shirt use:
Why does the t-shirt use: Lets Go !! Blue ?
Shouldn't it be Let's Go Blue !! ?
(I know about the apostrophe issue, just curious about the exclamation mark issue).
Also haha Old Navy.
Also this shirt uses Let's properly: http://www.sportsmemorabilia.com/sports-products/michigan-wolverines-adi...
Quick! To the Hindenpeter!
You forgot
that it's "Let's Go, Blue!!" There should be a comma before blue.
Follow me on Twitter @gfraley05
Double Fail
Double!! Fail'
Tremendous!
They made these for a bunch
They made these for a bunch of schools and all of them have the same typo. Our local news used the Colorado one.
Perhaps they were
Perhaps they were editorializing regarding last year's defense, where instead of making a tackle the defender inexplicably lets go and watches the opponent waltz into the endzone. Hopefully Mattison's crew will make sure that is a thing of the past.
"People who love sausage and respect the law should never watch either being made."
Why Michigan?
Shouldn't they be selling "Go (Old) Navy, Beat Army".
Personally, I'm not too likely to buy a Michigan Shirt from Old Navy or Walmart. MGoshirts for me!
Taking it one week at a time
while we're being language Nazi's you misused "begs the question"
Well...
While I'm careful not to say "begs the question" when I mean "raises the question," I can see why people do it. The English language (as you're no doubt well aware) is full of sayings that don't make literal sense. The other day I was surprised when someone didn't know what I meant when I said that I left one job to take another one. She didn't know what it meant to "take" a job, which makes sense in a certain very rigid way...Where I'm going with this (if I'm going anywhere) is that I don't have a problem with the mis-use of phrases and terms as long as most people understand what the person meant.
It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future. -- Yogi Berra
Apostrophe's aside...
I'm concentrating on the countdown to kickoff...
Wrong reasons #2
Just adding to this topic of our clothing being used for the wrong reasons. I work in a prison close to NYC. I also worked for Michigan football in '03-'07, so i have a ton of nike/michigan football clothing. I was made aware at one of our recent staff trainings that street Gangs (the Mexican mafia) has adopted our Block "M" clothing as a sort of uniform and that i will be unable to wear my michigan clothing to work.
BAT
UM'07
that is very true. I was in Cabo last summer and I have a Block M on my shoulder. I was approached by one of the workers and he told me if I was going to leave the resort, I needed to cover it up.
The team, the team, the team
Here is some UM clothing in the news for the right reason......
(NSFWorH)
Scroll down to the middle pictures in the top row of thumbnails.
http://egotastic.com/2011/08/lucy-pinder-topless-and-nuts-about-2012/
was just going to mention that
touche
what sort of photoshop
what sort of photoshop wizadry is this??
Can't be real, right?
They're real... and
They're real... and spectacular.
"There is not a scale available with which I can accurately measure how much I want you to shut the fuck up right now."
Which begs the question
You happened to come upon "the middle picture in the top row of thumbnails" how? :)
A proud first member of the Hoke Pointed at Me Club since 1/12/11.
Lucy Pinder brings one thing to my mind
A different sort of MANBALL.
Bless you...
for that link my son.
( aaamich fan )
I down-vote ANYONE that puts the "t" in front of osu. Don't be a tool.
Oh yea....screw msu too.
Even if they'd included the apostrophe
the shirt would still suck.
This is why
This is why you don't outsource to places that don't speak English as native language.
They were made in Ohio.
They were made in Ohio.
"There is not a scale available with which I can accurately measure how much I want you to shut the fuck up right now."
Detroit Zoo Wolverine
Detroit Zoo Wolverine says...
Now that's funny
Having now read the Old Navy piece
Does anyone else find it interesting that after revealing the not-so-accurate phrase on the shirt, they identified that the distribution included 70 "schools of higher learning" and placed MICHIGAN'S shirt in the article? Could this be some attempt by the writer to make Michigan appear the less-scholarly of the bunch?
The apparent apostrophe “faux pas” may very well have been purposeful as it has the potential of receiving a lot of press. I would imagine in the clothing world, even bad press is still press. Situations like this may enable a piece to become a collector's item among those in the literary world.
A similar point, however, can be made for the photo placement in the article. These kinds of photo-to-article attachments can become ways in which a writer can continue to speak beyond his written words (ala a picture is worth a thousand words) in an attempt to impress upon the writer's opinions to the reader’s subconscious without actually doing the more difficult task of writing the opinion-forming words.
At least it’s not a repeat of “Go Wolverines” as earlier depicted in the new scoreboard design.
A proud first member of the Hoke Pointed at Me Club since 1/12/11.
Well, I am relieved
I thought for a moment that Casey Anthony had switched over from her slammin' OSU gear and this is just an Old Navy fail.
What a great marketing gimmick by Old Navy.
What a great marketing gimmick by Old Navy. Until today I had no idea they sold college t-shirts. There is no way they could have bought more effective advertising, and it cost them almost nothing.
as luck would have it I'm existing in the filter bubble.
The banner reads "GO BLUE." There is no "Let's" on it.
(BTW, the expression "Begs the question" has nothing to do with raising a question.)