[clug] Sarcasm detection

[Brendan Jurd]

On 28 May 2010 17:10, Daniel Pittman <daniel at rimspace.net> wrote:
> http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html
>

That was very amusing, but I'm not sure we can kvetch about "alot"
with a straight face, since we are all perfectly comfortable using
formulations like "therefore", "beware", "somebody" and "whatever".

When a sequence of words becomes very common, sometimes (!) the spaces
go away and a new word is formed.  It's not a bad thing.  The only
real difference between "alot" and "whatever" is the amount of time
they have each been in everyday (!) use.

Now I'm not advocating the total abolition of the word-space, but for
really common formulations it seems quite harmless (!).  The word
"lot" almost (!) always (!) appears with the word "a" in front of it,
so it seems justifiable to me to omit the space and forge a new word.

However (!) if the word "alot" bypasses (!) your forebrain (!) and
taps directly into some deep well of affront, I quite sympathise.  No
amount of rationalising quells my fury when I see someone (!)
apostrophise a plural.

Cheers,
BJ