American Elites Batter the English Language

Human Events ^ | 02/23/2007 | Deroy Murdock

[goldstategop]

Americans have been dumbed down. Liberalism prefers an ignorant, unquestioning herd and likes it that way.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[baubau]

My favorite peeve is people using interrogative sentences for declarative ones in speech.

Always wondered whether such speech formation is a Southern way of pronunciation or an idiolect form that is passed from one youngster to another.

Caveat: English is not my first language.

[rhema]

I often wonder what response I might have received had I written to the producers and asked them to correct the phrases to "Take her some clothes!" :)

They'd have muttered some dark imprecations about "grammar purists."

[Old Professer]

How about, "a nanometer is 10 times smaller than an atom..."

[Yaelle]

I listen to the local evening talking heads here in SoCal. Sheesh.

Another of my pet peeves: the heavy Hispanic accents on the newscasters. That increase as they talk about Hispanic issues. No accent offends me in real life because I too have an accent when I speak non-mother tongues. But do we really NEED people who do not speak English perfectly as NEWSREADERS?? After all, Spanish speakers have channels where they can actually watch news in Spanish.

[Carolinamom]

Participles belong to a class called "verbals, and they're always used as adjectives.

Hey, Friend. I think you've got a case of indefinite pronoun reference for that underlined pronoun above. Participles are always used as adjectives; another verbal, gerund, is not.

[Old Professer]

Whosoever uses "whom" will eventually get his bell tolled.

[Yaelle]

"Free Republic posters' idea of a good candidate" would work and be less clumsy.

[baubau]

To whom are you speaking?

[rhema]

Americans have been dumbed down. Liberalism prefers an ignorant, unquestioning herd and likes it that way.

I wonder if this kind of thread would ever appear on a liberal listserv. Maybe in academia . . . alongside ones like "Queer Theories of Shakespeare."

[word_warrior_bob]

I know I've won the argument when someone calls me a dangling participle.

[Yaelle]

Here in the midwest we refer to Interstate Hwy. 57 as "I-57", Interstate Hwy. 80 as "I-80", etc. When I lived in SoCal, I noticed insertion of "the" as in "the I-5", "the I-15", "the I-8", etc. What gives with that?

I don't know. We always say "THE 110" or "THE 405." I don't know why. Interesting. We don't say the "I" part either. We are the only state where the highways are called "freeways," too, aren't we?

[gcruse]

Ever wanted to slap people who always raise their voice at the end of anything they say?

[rhema]

Hey, Friend. I think you've got a case of indefinite pronoun reference for that underlined pronoun above. Participles are always used as adjectives; another verbal, gerund, is not.

Thanks for pointing out my vague antecedent reference. Infinitives, also verbals, may be used as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.

[freedom moose]

That sounds correct AND natural. Thanks

[Yaelle]

Do you mean:

"And then we went to the store? And she saw the cutest pair of sandals? And so we said she should just buy them? And then after that we got those lattes?"

Ugh. I think it is insecurity writ large because it seems to be saying after each sentence "Are you still following me? Still listening? Do you understand me?" It's ugly.

[Cymbaline]

Most annoying to me is the use of apostrophes to indicate plurals. (Or, the use of apostrophe's to indicate plural's.)

People do this all the time and it always gives me an image of someone who flunked the eighth grade.

[rhema]

Whosoever uses "whom" will eventually get his bell tolled.

By who? The grammar Visigoths?

[Old Professer]

At the risk of getting kicked off here, your post reminded of one of my first experiences in the south, in Florida in 1960.

While waiting to talk to a mechanic I heard him tell the customer, "Wait a minute and I'll have my niggger carry you home."

Shrinking in shame, I turned my head in time to see this young black fellow walking up with a big smile on his face.

That was my first experience with what is now casually called, culture shock.

"Carry" was routinely used in place of "drive."

Expletives and slurs were as common as black-eyed peas.

[razorback-bert]

He be right.