History Main / ArtisticLicenseLinguistics

* DelusionsOfEloquence: When FeigningIntelligence meets [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness Sesquicentennial Locomotiveness]], [[HilarityEnsues hilariosity will be in a state of insinuation]].

* LearntEnglishFromWatchingTelevision: While this one is definitely true to an extent as many people will tell you, writers often assume that this applies to ALL languages whether they share inherent similarities (like most Latin-based languages) or not.

* PronounTrouble: GenderNeutralWriting can get lost in translation when one language is more strongly gendered than another-- so much for your character's AmbiguousGender.

There are a whole lot of science-related inaccuracies in fiction, with some fields of knowledge bearing the brunt worse than others. In the case of linguistics, the vast majority of people have no idea it exists, never mind the basics. Obviously, this includes writers. Indeed, the prevalence of this trope (and its relative lack of being noticed) can be attributed to this fact - most people recognize that when dealing with questions of physics, biology, chemistry, etc., they need to ask an expert, whereas with linguistics, many people don't even realize that there are experts to be asked.

* JustAStupidAccent: A foreign character never speaks his own language, but speaks the local language like a native, only with an intractable accent.

* PoirotSpeak: A foreign character will occasionally grasp for the right word, and will revert to his native language when stumped. So far, so good, but the words in question will always be ones the ''audience'' is likely to understand in the other language, rather than the sort of vocabulary a non-native speaker would have difficulty with.

* ConvenientlyPreciseTranslation: A perfect 1:1 translation achieved between disparate languages far more often than should be possible (but see IncidentalMultilingualWordplay for legitimate, real-life examples.)

[[folder: Mistakes with Usage:]]

[[folder: Author's Mistakes (General):]]

[[folder: Author's Mistakes (Translation tropes):]]

* AccentRelapse: Characters who've been demonstrated to speak fluent English prefer to speak with a heavy native accent if they no longer have to keep up the pretence.

[-Many people assume "linguistics" to be all about correcting spelling, pronunciation and grammar "errors". In fact there is no such thing as objectively correct usage,[[note]]True as far as it goes, but there is a recognized difference between '''descriptive''' and '''prescriptive''' linguistics with widely differing aims. Good rule of thumb is linguistics ''as a science'' is by nature '''descriptive'''.[[/note]] as languages evolve over time - linguists concern themselves with studying actual usage, warts and all, rather than trying to be a GrammarNazi. The following tropes are not strictly linguistics failures, simply poor usage:-]

[[folder: Audience's Misconceptions (Linguistic Dissonance)]]
[-While not made up of mistakes in itself, these tropes can cause difficulty with audiences who are unaware of the difference within languages over time and from place to place:-]

* In ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus: The House of Hades'', Piper suggests (and the others generally accept) that when the prophecy says ''"the world must fall"'', the "world" means the earth, and therefore in Greek means Gaea. Except the Greek word for "world" isn't "Gaea" (Γαῖα) or even the generic word for earth, "ge" (γῆ). The most common translation of "world" to Greek would be "kosmos" (κόσμος), which ''isn't'' a synonym for "earth"/"Gaea".

* ConvenientlyPreciseTranslation: A perfect 1:1 translation achieved between disparate languages far more often than should be possible (but see LuckyTranslation for legitimate, real-life examples.)

* GetTheeToANunnery: Wordplay and humo(u)r that's lost on modern audiences, who don't get the references.

* SeparatedByACommonLanguage: Misunderstandings and (more) unintentional hilarity encountered across different dialects of the same language.

* DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch: mismatches the [[GoshDarnItToHeck strength]] of {{Foreign Cuss Word}}s.

* LanguageOfTruth: If it is impossible to make a false statement in a language, it's impossible to make ''any'' statement in it at all. (In fantasy settings, this may be HandWaved as the result of the language itself being imbued with some sort of magic that prevents its speakers from lying.)

* LanguageOfTruth: If it is impossible to make a false statement in a language, it's impossible to make ''any'' statement in it at all.

* UsefulNotes/HowDoIUsedTense

* BlindIdiotTranslation: What happens when the translator is not fluent in one (or both) of the languages being translated.

* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: TheThemeParkVersion of Elizabethan (Early Modern) English, applied to any and all times before the Regency.

* HollywoodApocrypha: TheThemeParkVersion of the Early Modern English used in the King James Bible, applied to all fictional religious texts.

* ConvenientlyPreciseTranslation: A perfect 1:1 translation achieved between disparate languages far more often than should be possible. (But see LuckyTranslation for legitimate, real-life examples.)

* LearntEnglishFromWatchingTelevision: While this one is definitely true to an extent as many people will tell you, writers often assume that this applies to ALL languages whether they share inherent similarities (like most latin based languages) or not.

[-Many people assume "linguistics" to be all about correcting spelling, pronunciation and grammar "errors". In fact there is no such thing as objectively correct usage[[note]]True, as far as it goes, but there is a recognized difference between '''descriptive''' and '''prescriptive''' linguistics with widely differing aims. Good rule of thumb is linguistics ''as a science'' is by nature '''descriptive'''.[[/note]], as languages evolve over time - linguists concern themselves with studying actual usage, warts and all, rather than trying to be a GrammarNazi. The following tropes are not strictly linguistics failures, simply poor usage:-]