A Language Ponderance: Shoot(ing) (an) E-mail

[gnomi]

autotruezone asked me to ponder the phrase "shoot [him/her/them] [an] e-mail." Now, first, I have to say that I *always* hyphenate e-mail. Also, I still twitch a little bit at "an e-mail," since I'd never say "I sent him a mail" if I dropped a paper letter in the mailbox, but I think I'm losing that one. I continue to fight that one, even though I know it's likely futile. But the verb, "to shoot," is what interested autotruezone and what I've been thinking most about in this construct.

In my experience, one "shoots" a one- or two-line e-mail message (something along the line of "Where's that review you promised me?" or "Brunch is at 11:30; please set four extra places because the Cohens are bringing the Bagels and the Bialis." For longer items, I use "send," and I don't think I'm in the minority on that (I honestly can't think of any other verb to use in formal communication).

So now I open it to you all -- do you "shoot" people e-mail? Do you differentiate the verb for longer vs. shorter messages?

Comments

[byrne.livejournal.com]

The more I think about this the more I think I totally don't get what you mean.

Message?

A letter and an e-mail are the same thing. I don't understand the logic of them *not* being the same. Can you explain it to me?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

A (hard-copy) letter is the same as an electronic message. E-mail is like "mail," as in "you have mail." I sent him a message by e-mail. I sent him a letter by mail.

[byrne.livejournal.com]

..... Oh.

Um. I have written about fourteen comments and deleted them all. I disagree.

I do think you're going to lose this war, mostly because of two thing: e-mail (god I hate email) has become almost a tangible thing, like letters. And because "message' has FAR too many definitions. The medium is the message, the underlying message, the message was written. The stumble for ME comes from that word.

'Message' is not used that way in my life. It's for very short things -- instant messages, phone messages. E-mails are letters, written and constructed that way and sent electronically.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I fully acknowledge that I'm likely to lose this one. However, as with "who" vs. "whom," I'm going to fight for as long as I can.

[byrne.livejournal.com]

ohhh I've got your back on the 'who' vs. 'whom' battle.

We need a score card.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I think the reason who/whom is dying is that people don't know about cases in English (or, worse, are taught that English doesn't *have* cases).

[byrne.livejournal.com]

*blink*

*blinkblinkblink*

But.... Object. Modifiers. Case. Um. Oh boy. I'll be over here, with my story.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I *know*! It makes no sense to me that people think English is caseless.

::sporks bad teachers of English::

[byrne.livejournal.com]

Also, I'm not nearly as invested in this as it looks LOL!!

*goes back to the editing*

*blush*

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I didn't figure you were; I figured this was just sheer curiosity at how the idiolect works.

I enjoy this kind of thing, but you know that. :-)

As for editing, I think I'm going to start tackling "Merge" in the next little bit, to get a jump on it.

[byrne.livejournal.com]

hooooooooo okay!

*speeds up and makes room*

:D

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Do you need me to hold off? It just depends on how much time you want to poke at it once I'm done with it.

[byrne.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh, no! Work away. The sooner you do, the sooner I do, and I like lots of room, yo.

:D

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

It's a plan, then. I'll get on it in the next short bit.