'Grammar Nazi'

[Damien Hall]

PLEASE NOTE MY NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS / PRIÈRE DE NOTER MA NOUVELLE ADRESSE ÉLECTRONIQUE



Seen in an ad for a proofreading job in Australia, on a list of desirable characteristics for the successful candidate:


'Grammar Nazi characteristics'


The phrase has been around for a while, but this use of it in the very formal context of an advertisement for a job as someone who has to know how to use correct English (which presumably also entails knowledge of stylistic levels, even though that's not strictly the proofreader's job) testifies to an extreme amount of semantic bleaching, I think.


Damien



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Damien Hall

Newcastle University (UK / Royaume-Uni)

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, 'Towards a New Linguistic Atlas of France'
Projet de recherche: 'Vers un Nouvel Atlas Linguistique de la France'

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