Dungeon Master Forum

There is no official answer to this question about english grammar.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_English
"Unlike the case of other standard languages, however, there is no official or central regulating body defining Standard English."

Here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_language you' ll find the langages that do have regulating institutions.

I agree, English does not have any specific board regulating the language, however all dialects of English do still share certain rules, such as the proper word order, and sentence structure. Vocabulary is very similar across different dialects, although there is some variation there due to slang and informal usage. However, I have never seen any dialect where putting the verb ahead of the subject be considered acceptable in the formal usage of the language. So the Yoda speak was being purely used to create the illusion that Yoda was speaking in a language not native to the 1 Luke was using, and had different sentence structure, and by habit was transferring some grammar rules from his native language into the commonly used language.

A common real world example is say someone who's native language is Cantonese, when speaking in English, doesn't use pluralization of words when referring to numbers of more then 1. Eg: "It cost two dime" instead of the grammatically correct version of "It costs two dimes." with the words costs and dimes being in their plural forms.

Grammar and structure are the tools for basic clear communication, knowing when to bend or break them is the art of communication.

"You are tired" is the 'correct' construct, as our brains instantly hook on to the important subject, and then start applying to filters to understand what we want to say about it.

"Tired, you are" communicates the same thing, but throws the import in to the state, emphasising it . It's not incorrect to want to use the language that way, just we wouldn't normally. I think yoda's speech shows this idea of highlighting concepts first, slowing down the listener's brain. At least, in the original trilogy. His speech might have become a pastiche of itself later, I can't recall.

"Tired, you are
With drooping eyes
I see from afar
I've stolen your pies

No one will correct the grammar order in that poem, it's perfectly acceptable in that context I would have thought.

beowuuf wrote:Grammar and structure are the tools for basic clear communication, knowing when to bend or break them is the art of communication.

Exactly; and this is true of many things in life: you have to know and understand rules to use something, but once you understand, you can then bend or break those rules to dramatic effect.

beowuuf wrote:Grammar and structure are the tools for basic clear communication, knowing when to bend or break them is the art of communication.

"You are tired" is the 'correct' construct, as our brains instantly hook on to the important subject, and then start applying to filters to understand what we want to say about it.

"Tired, you are" communicates the same thing, but throws the import in to the state, emphasising it . It's not incorrect to want to use the language that way, just we wouldn't normally. I think yoda's speech shows this idea of highlighting concepts first, slowing down the listener's brain. At least, in the original trilogy. His speech might have become a pastiche of itself later, I can't recall.

Well said, beo.

"Tired, you are
With drooping eyes
I see from afar
I've stolen your pies

No one will correct the grammar order in that poem, it's perfectly acceptable in that context I would have thought.

Of course, when you're doing a poem, you can change spelling, grammar or anything else, within reason, and not get marked wrong. This is a tradition known as "poetic license."

@gambit: I definitely agree with you there.

ebeneezergude wrote:Can monsters be made to reflect upon their actions to create a richer and more diverse moral landscape within the dungeon? This would be more realistic, maybe with moral landscape tiles in ESB.

I think this is one DSB feature request we can all get behind, especially today of all days

Gambit37 wrote:I needed a quiet seat in London earlier to sign my house-purchase contract. I managed to find one in a Pret. Then got kicked out 'cos it caught fire. Just my luck.

Yay! A funny, spontaneous comment from Gambit that in no way appeared earlier on twitter first. No way!

True story too!

you should've sat in a pie shop. You should eat more of them anyways...

A PaulS quote! It's like old times!

Paul Stevens wrote:To be totally safe, you better dig a hole,
crawl in, and cover yourself. After 30 minutes
or so.....you will be safe.

Sounds a bit like some people's (not mine) first night in Minecraft...if night lasted half an hour, that is .

If I am not mistaken, this hasn't been quoted yet. It is from the DSB tutorial:

Sophia wrote:Also, who wants someone who looks like Mophus? Pick someone more suitable, let's say, Zed.

BOO!



I get the feeling you and Sophia don't like Mophus much.

This put a huge smile on my face.

Zyx wrote:My baby screamer was upgraded to Lord Chaos in only 23 months. Happily touching every wonder the world has to offer, in particular the computer of daddy, in particular the shiny brighty lighty glowing shutdown button. (don't expect any update of conflux soon). I couldn't find any firestaff strong enough to fluxcage him, so we're entering the negociations era.

Paul Stevens wrote: (...) any requirement that the operands
of commutative operations such as addition are guaranteed to be
evaluated in any particular order.

For a while I thought Paul might actually be Reincarnated Sir Humphrey Appleby from Yes (Prime) Minister .

Fortunately, the next line fixed it :

Paul Stevens wrote:But I confess ignorance of the rules governing this.