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johnslat
Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 13859 Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2010 9:48 pm Post subject: Pet Peeves |
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"'Equation,' 'Gingerly' And Other Linguistic Pet Peeves
by GEOFF NUNBERG
February 23, 2010
My friend Scott is always sending me indignant e-mails with examples of people using the word "equation" to mean just a situation with a lot of factors, when nothing is actually being equated � as in, "Family members are a critical part of the doctor-patient equation." I tell him I think of this as just routine journalistic bloat, and not even he thinks it's a threat to the republic. But he enjoys grousing about it, all the more because it doesn't seem to annoy anybody else that much. It makes for a fine pet peeve.
I have peeves of my own. When I hear people say "oversimplistic," I suspect they don't know that "simplistic" means that all by itself. I wish somebody would drive "arguably" and "quite possibly" into the sea. And it seems to me it's almost always a bad idea to begin a sentence with "I pride myself on."
A pet peeve should be like a pet theory or a pet story � a tic or fancy that you nurture in your bosom and make your own. You can have a pet peeve about people who mispronounce "mascarpone." But it's odd to use the phrase for off-the-rack gripes that everybody shares. Saying that you have a pet peeve about "thinking outside the box" or "Your call is important to us" is like saying you have a pet theory that you should feed a cold and starve a fever.
I have this notion that "gingerly" shouldn't be used as an adverb, as in, "She hugged the child gingerly," because there's no corresponding adjective "ginger" � you wouldn't say, "She gave the child a ginger hug." I'll concede that "gingerly" has been used as an adverb for 400 years, and nobody's ever complained about it before. But so much the better: Every time I see the word used as an adverb, I can take a quiet satisfaction in knowing that I'm marching to a more logical drummer than the half-billion other speakers of English who haven't yet cottoned to the problem.
Writers tend to have lots of these notions. Kingsley Amis held that it was incorrect to use "pristine" to mean pure rather than "original," and that you shouldn't say, "I was oblivious to the noise," since "oblivious" can only mean "forgetful." And in a usage book he published a few years ago, Bill Bryson contended that it was wrong to use "expectorate" as a synonym for spit, since it really means to cough up phlegm from the chest. The word did originally mean that, but it's been used to mean spit since Dickens' day. And Bryson knows perfectly well that it would be unreasonable to insist on the original meaning � think of the mischief it would work with Major League Baseball's rule 8.02, which says that the pitcher shall not expectorate on the ball. But Bryson also understands that it's the very unreasonableness of the argument that makes it so handy to have around when the dinner conversation flags.
obody ever took this quite so far as the 19th-century writer and journalist Ambrose Bierce. He's best remembered today for his stories and his satirical Devil's Dictionary, but in 1909 he wrote a book called Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. It was republished for its centenary last year with entertaining annotations by Jan Freeman, who writes the language column for The Boston Globe. Bierce had a gift for discerning usage errors where no one else would have thought there was anything amiss.
Take the sentence, "Since I made no money last year, I had to live in a dilapidated shack with a dirt floor with 10 other people." By Bierce's lights, it contains five errors. You should say "earn money," not "make money"; "last year" should be "the previous year"; "dilapidated" shouldn't be used for a wood structure since it comes from the Latin word for stone; "dirt" shouldn't be used to mean earth; and you shouldn't use "people" with a specific number � it should be "10 other persons."
This makes Bierce sound like a caricature of a cantankerous pedant. But he clearly enjoyed being perverse and ornery, and my guess is that his journalist colleagues wouldn't have taken any of this too seriously � "Oh, that's just Ambrose being Ambrose."
The weird thing is to see rules like these passed down as traditional linguistic wisdom. Take that edict that you ought to say "10 persons" rather than "10 people." You can still find it in the recent editions of Strunk and White's revered Elements of Style, along with antique admonitions against saying "contact us" or calling something "worthwhile." The linguist Arnold Zwicky calls these zombie rules. Somebody should have run them through a wood chipper long ago, but here we are in 2010 assigning students a style guide that tells them that correct English requires them to write, "There were 5,000 screaming persons at the Lady Gaga concert."
It's bad enough that that leaves students with the impression that mastering good usage requires learning an esoteric code. But it also robs those rules of the kinky charm they had when they were merely somebody's quizzical peeves. Now those personal crotchets are presented as the authorized standards of proper speech, as if you could decree the tune the language is obliged to dance to. But the English language doesn't owe anybody a living � it was here first."
Have any pet peeves you'd like to share? I've given up on trying to get "hopefully" used correctly - it's hopeless. But I'm still fighting the "less/fewer" and the "amount/number" battles.
Oh, I have others, too. But I'd like to hear yours.
And, the next dog I get, I swear that I'm going to name him/her "Peeve," just so when I introduce him/her to people, I can say, "And this is my pet, Peeve."
Regards,
John |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2010 10:07 pm Post subject: |
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Few vs. less ticks me off. This happens in spoken or written English.
People usually foul up and write "then" instead of "than". Arggh.
Except vs. accept. |
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stillnosheep
Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 2068 Location: eslcafe
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Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2010 11:50 pm Post subject: |
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Hi Johnslat,
The notion that -ly adverbs are somehow illegitimate if loosed into the world sans the care and attention of a corresponding adjective seems in-teresting, if somewhat olde-worlde, but how (or where?) on earth can anyone mispronounce "mascarpone"? (I'm from Europe btw).
As far as Geoff's proposed pet, Peeve, is concerned, I once thought of naming two dogs Pills and Coke, just for the fun to be had calling for them at Festivals. To be fair I was seeing a girl who went by the name of E at the time.
Aceeeeeeeeeeeeeed! |
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johnslat
Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 13859 Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 12:50 am Post subject: |
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Dear stillnosheep,
" . . . but how (or where?) on earth can anyone mispronounce "mascarpone"? (I'm from Europe btw)."
Heck, quite easily. I even had to look it up to see what it meant. And when I heard the audio of the word, I knew that I'd have mispronounced it.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mascarpone
Regards,
John |
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Sashadroogie
Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 11061 Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 10:30 am Post subject: |
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Presently for currently! Disgusting!! |
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steki47
Joined: 20 Apr 2008 Posts: 1029 Location: BFE Inaka
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Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 12:14 pm Post subject: |
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To/two/too
Their/there/they're
Your/You're
I see this a lot. On forums filled with "English teachers". Grrrr! |
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tomstone
Joined: 09 Dec 2009 Posts: 293
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Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 2:50 pm Post subject: |
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You're correct, your peeve is also one of mine. Their lack of attention to detail means that they're butchering their own language, the one that they're there to teach! If they don't care enough to take two minutes to proofread their own posts, they'll be sloppy in the classroom, too! |
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johnslat
Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 13859 Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 2:55 pm Post subject: |
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And let's not forget the ever-popular "loose" for "lose."
Lose it!
Regards,
John |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343
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Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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DEFINATELY ! |
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jdl
Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Posts: 632 Location: cyberspace
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Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:00 pm Post subject: |
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John. It must be the weekend. Seems you have too much time on your hands! Isn't there a bike path calling your name?
Hilarious, by the way. Thanks for the levity! Give my regards to you friend Scott. He has brightened our outlook. |
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steki47
Joined: 20 Apr 2008 Posts: 1029 Location: BFE Inaka
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Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 10:39 pm Post subject: |
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tomstone wrote: |
Their lack of attention to detail means that they're butchering their own language, the one that they're there to teach! |
Nice! Very nice! You're making a good point with your post.
BTW, my Japanese wife used to work at an English school and was constantly correcting those kinds of errors in the teachers' reports. |
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stillnosheep
Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 2068 Location: eslcafe
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Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:23 pm Post subject: |
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johnslat wrote: |
And let's not forget the ever-popular "loose" for "lose."
Lose it!
Regards,
John |
They loose 'loose' for 'lose' and thereby lose?
Loosers!
Moving on back:
Last edited by stillnosheep on Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:28 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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stillnosheep
Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 2068 Location: eslcafe
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Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:26 pm Post subject: |
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johnslat wrote: |
sns wrote: |
" . . . but how (or where?) on earth can anyone mispronounce "mascarpone"? (I'm from Europe btw)."
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nickpellatt
Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 1522
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Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:31 pm Post subject: |
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People not recognising the weak form 'should've', 'could've' and typing it as 'should of', 'could of' ... I see that a lot on facebook. |
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elamericano
Joined: 10 Nov 2007 Posts: 65
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Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 2:54 am Post subject: |
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visa/VISA
common nouns/proper nouns
i'm too cool to capitalize anything i type, ever.
weary/wary
"for all intensive purposes"
"just desserts"
"over-exaggerate" |
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