POSTS
Grammatical or Spelling error?
BlogIn an email thread the following was written by me:
From: Steven Harms (stharms) Subject: RE: NPR Story - “Google’s New Message Service Includes Voice”
And their lightweight, open-standard (Jabber, etc.) and play nice with new platforms. Google’s making Andreesen’s predictions come true. Works great on my Mac :-D
You see that I made an error there, I typed their instead of they’re. That’s just what can happen when you type quickly and don’t proofreed.
I noticed the error and re-replied:
From: Steven Harms (stharms) Subject: RE: NPR Story - “Google’s New Message Service Includes Voice”
Egredious spelling error i was thinking “their lightweight client” but the situation called for they’re. I apologize.
steven
Responded a recipient:
To: Steven Harms (stharms) Subject: RE: NPR Story - “Google’s New Message Service Includes Voice”
grammar, spelling - what’s the difference. ;-)
Is it grammar when the intent (thinking “they are”) was right but the spelling (their) was wrong? Or was it spelling when it ruins the grammatical intent?
Strikes me that this is a question of the locus of the intentionality of the subject. If I intended one thing it becomes a grammar error, if I knew the difference between the contraction of they are and the possessive form their then I made a spelling error. It’s a presentation error that changes dependent upon the mindset of the author.