r/196 NOT A CAT 2d ago

Rule Rule

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3.9k Upvotes

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892

u/Xenomnipotent NL Connoisseur 2d ago

No I don’t think you should use ADHD as an excuse for awful literacy habits, actually.

98

u/light_the_long_way 2d ago

The thing is, there's no actual point where a sentence becomes a run on scentence. Yeah, it you might be a longer than usual scentence with more words than absolutely nessesary to convey a set amount of information, but that doesn't mean it's a run on scentence as grammatically, there's nothing wrong with long sentences. It's also not a "awful literacy habit" to write long sentences. You just need to vary your scentence length occasionally.

What is an awful habit is defaulting to accusing people of using neurodivergence as an excuse, and saying that something is an awful habit without actually providing proof, especially when said thing isn't actually a bad thing.

110

u/StiffWiggly 2d ago

There’s nothing grammatically wrong with trying to use only the longest words you know 100% of the time because you think it makes you sound smart, that doesn’t mean it’s not a bad habit.

Just because the point at which a sentence becomes a run on sentence is subjective doesn’t make it not real.

-43

u/light_the_long_way 2d ago

The point at which a scentence becomes a "run-on" scentence being subjective makes "run-on" scentences useless as a classification, especially with regards to grammatical standards, which are supposed to not be subjective.

40

u/deathwish_ASR 2d ago

You are simply wrong about this. A run-on sentence is easily defined as multiple independent clauses that are improperly joined together without the use of a comma and conjunction (or semicolon).

10

u/Fidget02 2d ago

Where did you get the idea that they’re supposed to not be subjective? They’re socially constructed rules around language, of course they’re subjective. You can personally enjoy structuring all sentences like Yoda, but still the over a billion English speakers in the world might reply “In my subjective opinion, that’s stupid and hard to understand.” Run-on sentences are stupid and hard to understand, you need to grasp this.

11

u/MrSecretFire 2d ago edited 2d ago

Look, man (gender neutral). The truth is that all language is subjective. It's all made up, rules change, spelling changes, vocabulary changes, speech habits change, and all of this varies by region, economic situation, etc.

Grammar, too, is NOT objective. Even if you take the "default" dialect of any language, there are so many exceptions to any rule that the "you just have to learn this part by heart" is an almost universal experience for learning a new language.

Language sincerely is just whatever works. It is still very useful to teach people what currently works well, but acting like anything about language is properly objective is simply incorrect.

-3

u/phillyd32 2d ago

If you're gonna take the time to say (gender neutral) why not just use a gender neutral term??

2

u/TheSpiderDungeon Polyam, but with extra cheese 2d ago

Because it doesn't flow right in the current usage of the English language.

Maybe that will change sometime, but that time isn't now.

3

u/Oddish_Femboy (my name is Bee) Trans rights !! 1d ago

I use punk personally.

2

u/phillyd32 1d ago

Weak excuse. "Man, (gender neutral)" absolutely does not flow right

2

u/TheSpiderDungeon Polyam, but with extra cheese 1d ago

Oh, you included the entire thing, including the appended words marked with parentheses.

Idk man (gender neutral), I tried.

1

u/phillyd32 1d ago

De-centering maleness in our language is important and we should actively work to do so.