For the linguistic pedants!

[Jeff Smith]

Telling someone using a chisel for the first time the "correct" way to hold it is probably a good idea; telling an experienced craftsman that they're holding it "incorrectly" is not.

Unless they are missing fingers, in which case it might be considered good advice......

[bluebottle]

. . . . . . . . . .

"To boldly go where no one has been before"  really is a better sentence than "To go boldly where no one has been before" or even "Boldly to go where no one has been before" which isn't quite so dull.

 

It was also a gift to Douglas Adams:

 

“And all dared to brave unknown terrors, to do mighty deeds, to boldly split infinitives that no man had split before--and thus was the Empire forged.”

[Ozexpatriate]

“And all dared to brave unknown terrors, to do mighty deeds, to boldly split infinitives that no man had split before--and thus was the Empire forged.”

"In these enlightened days, of course, no one believes a word of it."

[Ozexpatriate]

More interesting, I think, than most of the pedantic interpretations of grammar that people get upset about are the major changes taking place in the language.

One of them I think is the death of the adjective.

The Pinker article from The Guardian referenced above is interesting in that it quotes advertising slogans. I don't know if they are the metaphorical chicken or the egg, but I do see harbingers of the death of the adverb in many advertising slogans.

 

"Eat Healthy" is a slogan I see often. "Eat healthy" what exactly, one wonders? Of course the slogan, more properly, is "eat healthily".

 

A Bonds slogan that I noticed here is similar: "Shine Bright".

 

Of course Apple said "Think Different" back in 1997.

 

Other examples are slogans like "Eat fresh" (Subway) which is either missing a noun, or mutilating a misused adjective as an adverb.

 

The desire to make punchy slogans by truncating words is understandable, but what I find interesting is when it creeps into the idiom of day to day speech, and I believe that is happening with adverbs.

[wombatofludham]

I must admit to cringing at some advertising straplines and their increasing abuse of adjectives, adverbs, or disposing of verbs on occasions.  Sadly, I think these liberties with sentence construction are having an influence on everyday speech, and combined with the increased use of the Australian Interrogative Inflection at the end of each sentence here in the UK regardless of whether it is a question or not, means that for me, listening to some people is becoming an exercise in restraining my natural inclination to just punch their lights out. 

[Jeff Smith]

'They won big' is one that really annoys me.....but isn't this how language develops?

[bluebottle]

'They won big' is one that really annoys me.....but isn't this how language develops?

 

The language has developed not necessarily to the United Kingdom's advantage.

 

[Pacific231G]

The language has developed not necessarily to the United Kingdom's advantage.

 

That's what inevitably happens when your language becomes the world's main international language.

 

This has happened before, usually as the result of a large empire, but what could be different this time is that far better communications may tend to stop different regional dialects from diverging into completely separate languages. That happened with Latin where regional and local variations grew to the point where French. Italian, Spanish and a number of other languages including Catalan and Basque became separate. The "national" languages were codified and effectively imposed by the developing nation states but as late as 1870 the majority of the rural French population still didn't speak French. 

 

Following its independence there was a deliberate effort to make American English diverge from British English. This is why British English colour and centre are color and center in  American English. If you'd been in London or Boston Mass.in the seventeenth or eighteenth century you'd probably have come across both spellings more or less equally. That divergence never really happened because so much literature, trade and people criss-crossed the Atlantic even before the arrival of telecommunications and sound movies. That universality does though make English very open to being modified by outside influences.

 

I also dislike the corruption of the adjective and find usages like "The British Swim Team" or the "Dive Team" clumsy and infantile.  I also don't think that has come from a change in popular usage but more likely from some brand consultant trying to justify their enormous fee by "being contemporary".

Won Big!! is also probably from the keyboard of some jerk in an ad agency.  (Useful American word jerk!!)

[Jeff Smith]

Here's some more American phrases.

'You did good'

'My bad'

In a presentation to say 'I'll talk to' rather than 'I'll talk about' when referring to a topic on screen.

Insure instead of ensure.

[Pacific231G]

Here's some more American phrases.

'You did good'

'My bad'

In a presentation to say 'I'll talk to' rather than 'I'll talk about' when referring to a topic on screen.

Insure instead of ensure.

Don't you mean "Here are some more American phrases"

 

I've always taken insure to relate to insurance while ensure means to make sure of something. I made sure that the car was insured and I ensured that it was safe to drive.

I do find it a shame when words with subtly different meanings become confused though it does happen. I would expect a judge or a referee to be disinterested in a trial or a game but certainly not to be uninterested.

[PGC]

One of my pet hates (and, from what I can remember, Terry Wogan's as well) is "I've been on a journey". Really, so where did you visit?

 

I was so pleased that when Pixie Lott was eliminated from Strictly Come Dancing last night (I didn't fancy an argument with SWMBO over what we'd watch!), she didn't describe her time as a participant of the programme as "a journey" but "a fantastic experience". If we have youngsters like her, who are a role model for youngsters, using language like that, then perhaps there's a chance our language will not descent into triviality, banality etc.

 

Phil

[Jeff Smith]

Don't you mean "Here are some more American phrases"

 

I've always taken insure to relate to insurance while ensure means to make sure of something. I made sure that the car was insured and I ensured that it was safe to drive.

I do find it a shame when words with subtly different meanings become confused though it does happen. I would expect a judge or a referee to be disinterested in a trial or a game but certainly not to be uninterested.

Probably, or perhaps 'here're' .......if there is such an abbreviation....!

 

Americans (US certainly not sure about Canadians) do not to my knowledge ever use the word ensure.  Insure is used in both contexts.

[Pacific231G]

Probably, or perhaps 'here're' .......if there is such an abbreviation....!

 

 

There is now because you've just used it but it seems to be a known non-standard contraction of here are. 

 

Ensure does appear in American English dictionaries and the two words are supposed to have different meanings as in British English but colloquially insure is often used instead of ensure. I hope that's not another useful word lost.

 

I think an American lawyer would make that distinction but interestingly it was less clear in 1787

 

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

 

but also note that the preamble to the US Constitution uses what is now the British English spelling of defence as opposed to defense and the capitalisations are a bit random as well.

[wombatofludham]

One thing that seems to be creeping into general use, but which annoys me, is "train station".  I know it is a logical follow-on from "bus station" and "coach station" (as opposed to "road station") but for some illogical quirk of history, the place from which you travel by train has always been a "railway/railroad station".  In Northern Ireland, Translink have even taken to branding their buildings with the expression "train station".  I suppose it could be the natural evolution of the language, bringing the modes of transport together in some degree of common logic (integrated transport, anyone?) but I personally will continue to use "railway station" come hell or high water!

[bluebottle]

I must admit to cringing at some advertising straplines and their increasing abuse of adjectives, adverbs, or disposing of verbs on occasions.  Sadly, I think these liberties with sentence construction are having an influence on everyday speech, and combined with the increased use of the Australian Interrogative Inflection at the end of each sentence here in the UK regardless of whether it is a question or not, means that for me, listening to some people is becoming an exercise in restraining my natural inclination to just punch their lights out. 

 

Judging by your posts, you should be well able to set such people a good example, but I don't think that you should offer to dot their eyes for them.

[Jeff Smith]

One thing that seems to be creeping into general use, but which annoys me, is "train station".  I know it is a logical follow-on from "bus station" and "coach station" (as opposed to "road station") but for some illogical quirk of history, the place from which you travel by train has always been a "railway/railroad station".  In Northern Ireland, Translink have even taken to branding their buildings with the expression "train station".  I suppose it could be the natural evolution of the language, bringing the modes of transport together in some degree of common logic (integrated transport, anyone?) but I personally will continue to use "railway station" come hell or high water!

Yes, living in the colony requires one to modify language to be understood so train station it is here.  Also one has to ask for hot tea otherwise you get iced tea. 

 

The default setting on my Windows phone GPS is British English which is nice so that I take the required exit from the roundabout not the traffic circle or join the motorway rather than the interstate, etc. etc.

[Ozexpatriate]

Americans (US certainly not sure about Canadians) do not to my knowledge ever use the word ensure.  Insure is used in both contexts.

Perhaps that's an indictment on literacy in the south? The second Google auto-fill using 'insure' is 'insure vs. ensure' and the references are American.

Also one has to ask for hot tea otherwise you get iced tea.

That's definitely a Southern thang (plus it could be 'sweet tea'). Here in the cool wet northwest there's a lot more (hot) tea drinkers.

[Ozexpatriate]

I think an American lawyer would make that distinction but interestingly it was less clear in 1787.

I suspect that was true on both sides of the pond at that time. The declaration of independence famously uses "unalienable" (rather than inalienable) as well.

 

The Oxford English Dictionary may have begun in 1857 but it was a very long time before it was useful as a reference work. It makes you wonder how they managed without it.

[RhBBob]

The Oxford English Dictionary may have begun in 1857 but it was a very long time before it was useful as a reference work. It makes you wonder how they managed without it.

 

Yes, the Oxford English Dictionary is 'very unique'.

 

Oooops...

[Jeff Smith]

I believe American English was largely standardized (or is it standardised) when the government paid Webster to produce the dictionary of that name. It introduced consistent spelling for most words previously ending '...our' and simplified a number of other spellings including words ending '..re' changed to 'er'. Basically taking the 'French' out of English! The irony here is that the American pronunciation of French words in common usage such as valet, fillet, etc is actually correct with a silent 't'.

[Bernard Lamb]

 

 

The default setting on my Windows phone GPS is British English which is nice so that I take the required exit from the roundabout not the traffic circle or join the motorway rather than the interstate, etc. etc.

The problem with that is that the word roundabout is confined to the south of England.

At some point going north from London it changes to island.

A phrase on the lines of the following comes to mind.

This person guns down the freeway to hear a guy who is running for congress. Or this person drives down the motorway to hear a chap who is standing for parliament.

Bernard

[Ozexpatriate]

This person guns down the freeway to hear a guy who is running for congress. Or this person drives down the motorway to hear a chap who is standing for parliament.

If you published 'guns down the freeway' in a news report people would assume an act of road rage and want to know how many casualties there were.

 

Churchill's definition of a politician: "He is asked to stand, he wants to sit, he is expected to lie." Substitute "run" for "stand" and you have the American version.

[Jeff Smith]

Even Americans are perplexed by their own language. Years ago a comedian asked 'Why do we park on the driveway and drive on the Parkway?'

[bluebottle]

Shopping on Amazon for a copy of Montaigne's Essays recently, my choice was between The Penguin and Everyman's editions. The two were the same price, and my first thought was that the latter was more attractive, being a nicely bound hardback, while the Penguin was paperback. On the other hand, the Penguin appeared to be a more scholarly work, having an index and copious footnotes lacking in the Everyman's.

 

The decisive factor was that the Penguin is translated into British English (M. A. Screech) and the Everyman's American English (Donald M. Frame). There was some controversy about this amongst the reviewers, one rather unpleasantly referring to "awful American" and a more measured response that as the original work was in French it didn't matter which variant of English it was rendered into. That response was what decided me. It did matter.

 

One perceives one's own spoken and written language as neutral. I haven't enough of a grasp of French to forego a translation, and I need that translation to be a colourless filter between me and the original. The American version tints that filter, reminding me that I am not reading Montaigne's actual words. I should think that that would also be true for an American reading Screech.

 

I enjoy Twain, Runyon, Steinbeck, Miller and Williams because they present to me a picture of an exotic land through words and phrases that are part of the colour of that land. When some of those words are displaced across the Atlantic, they jar in their new surroundings, and often they are mangled and misused. Take the half-understood and so garbled sporting metaphors: "Throw a curved ball", "Out in left field", "Step on to the plate" I've heard, but I haven't heard "Bowl a googly", "Off the wall" or "Come to the crease" used as metaphors recently.

[BR60103]

Since we get much exposure directly to the USA. I notice that participles seem to be disappearing. Frying pan has become fry pan. and quite a few others.

Hot tea has to be specified as far north as Michigan, which is north of Canada.