The Pedant's Revolt

[icomefromalanddownunder]

When you are an impoverished Englsh teacher with school fees to pay you are reduced to markng SATs and GCSE papers which make you want to give up. But then you remember the school fees so you carry on.

Laughing in sympathy - in my case it's vet bills and third year uni assignments.

Sensory studies students given an unlabelled diagram of a tastebud and asked to annotate it. One of them decided that it must be an onion, and labelled accordingly.

Another, asked to identify the grape varieties that four red wines had been made from, answered Sauvignon blanc in each case.

[J.R.]

Mind you what else do you expect from footballers? I heard that Steven Gerrard was once asked what his favourite cheese is, to which he replied, "erm, grated."

.... and Becks being asked by Sir Alex during Golden Bollox Man U days, if he would give the team a talk on tactics during a training session.

"Sure Boss ! Well lads !

Tactics ! They're rather nice lickle peppermint sweeties wat come in a handy little plastic box, innit !!"

[CHAZ]

Those Americans have a verb non existant in English....gotten

How often did i hear as a student and since during trips to USA, "have you gotten"....
Already they can't spell correctly words ending in -our....

Cos or coz is another one that gets me.....

[Jo]

I haven't participated in this so far, because if I started I wouldn't know when to stop! I hate to see our language abused, but on the other hand I am forced to admit that people at work who can't spell or punctuate can nevertheless make their meaning clear, and in many cases write more succinct documents and reports than I do. And probably in half the time too. One of the things I had to learn when I started work was not to spend ages weighing the value of every word, drafting and redrafting several times as we had to do with translations at university, when the memo or letter I was writing would probably only be read once and then filed or binned.

Those who are interested in language might be interested in World Wide Words, which is produced by the inestimable Michael Quinion - http://www.worldwidewords.org. As well as the website, there is a weekly email newsletter which has tens of thousands of subscribers all over the world. His particular forte is debunking myths about the origins of idioms, slang words, and acronyms. If you ever thought (as I did) that POSH was derived from "Port Out, Starboard Home", or that "saved by the bell" was to do with bells being tied on the fingers and toes of bodies in coffins, in case they weren't really dead and came to after burial, then World Wide Words is for you . I have learned to mistrust on sight most acronym explanations (except well known ones such as radar, laser, etc), and the more colourful explanations for word and phrase derivations.

[jhopgood]

Those Americans have a verb non existant in English....gotten

How often did i hear as a student and since during trips to USA, "have you gotten"....
Already they can't spell correctly words ending in -our....

Cos or coz is another one that gets me.....

Not sure about gotten but Coz is Sarf London, 50's version.
I remember because in my junior school, (Greenacres), the teacher was doing some exercise where we would say things, probably as part of a conversation, and he would write it on the board.
My contribution began with Coz, which he wrote up as Coz, with no correction or explanation.
My first words to be read by others.
You tend to remember these things.

[englishangel]

Those Americans have a verb non existant in English....gotten

How often did i hear as a student and since during trips to USA, "have you gotten"....
Already they can't spell correctly words ending in -our....

Cos or coz is another one that gets me.....

I am going to have to check this* because I think gotten is part of the verb 'to get' in old English, well 17th/18th century English, as are many 'Americanisms'. As for honor, color, flavor etc, I think they are also from the same period.

If you go to South Carolina, there are islands off the coast populated by direct descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers who sound as though they have recently landed from Plymouth.

Shakespeare famously wrote his name about a dozen differnt ways. I am all for correct spelling and grammar where it matters (there, their, they're) but sometiomes we can be a little too pedantic.

* Bill Bryson- Mother Tongue. He doesn't just write amusing travel books you know.

[J.R.]

GOTTEN.

gotten (v.) come into the possession of something concrete or abstract : "She got a lot of paintings from her uncle"
gotten (v.) enter or assume a certain state or condition : "He became annoyed when he heard the bad news"

[loringa]

The one that constantly bugs me is how the word 'Barter' has somehow changed it's meaning from 'exchange of goods' or 'payment in kind' to replace 'bargain' - haggling, deal making etc,

Everytime a holiday programme on the BBC go to a souk or something the jolly airhead presenter goes on about, "now for a spot of bartering" - NO IT'S NOT YOU UNEDUCATED OAF!!!

They have even started using it on the serious business news on Radio 4!

The trouble with being overly pedantic Craig is that mistakes tend to rebound on you; you don't really mean 'it's meaning' do you?

[matthew]

Am I the only person to hate being asked what my name WAS? Next time I shall ask "When?"

Please, all you pedants out there join the battle to rid the world of this expression.

Maggie

On the contrary: the receptionist is the pedant here. She wants to know what your name was when you made the booking. Perhaps you've changed it since then.

[matthew]

I am going to have to check this* because I think gotten is part of the verb 'to get' in old English, well 17th/18th century English, as are many 'Americanisms'. As for honor, color, flavor etc, I think they are also from the same period.

Oh, 'gotten' is a perfectly good English word. It's largely fallen out of use in British English, but you still see it in the expression 'ill-gotten gains'.

Spelling is another matter: the idea of a single correct spelling for most words really came in after American independence. For a few words, the Americans and British ended up picking different spellings. It's been suggested that the Americans did that deliberately out of a sense of national pride, and they perceived their spellings as simpler and more logical. And by 'the Americans', I really mean Noah Webster.

[midget]

ISSUES. Everyone has them these days, and wants them ADDRESSED. What happened to solving problems?

[nastymum]

My sister works for Hansard. They have book whch decrees the correct grammar and punctuaton for every event. In the front it says 'The Hansard way is the only way' . Clearly , who ever wrote it did not sit in on any select committees as my sister says it is nigh on impossble to put what anyone says in these committees into plain English. Mostly they invove making sense of 'rolling out the issues ..' What does ths mean?

[huntertitus]

ISSUES. Everyone has them these days, and wants them ADDRESSED. What happened to solving problems?

I scream at the radio when they talk about ISSUES too

Also at ten past four they will announce that it is ten AFTER four

When the next programme starts at five o'clock they announce that it will start "at the top of the hour"
"At five o'clock" is shorter and more efficient than "at the top of the hour"

Don't get me started on the new word SEGUE, as in a likk to another subject (pron. "SEG-WAY")

Then there are politicians

"Let me put it quite simply" = "Let me waste time while I thin what to say"

"Let me put it like this" = "I am not going to answer the last question"

"Clearly..." (at the beginning of a sentence) means "You are not allowed to disagree with this falsehood"

[Mrs C.]

Can I get ...? (rather than "please may I have ...?) No, I`ll get it for you

Have you got like a bag? No, we have proper bags

Could I have a couple of ..... please? Two ? No, just one please.

Tuckshop favourites!

[huntertitus]

My adolescents drive me incandescent with

"I was like...." translates as "I said....."