Friday, 28 May 2010
Pedantic Protest
I really like the New York Times Lens site. It provides a daily set of pictures from around the world. However, my pleasure was spoiled today by the caption on the first one, which read, 'Steelworkers took to the street ... to protest a government proposal.' I've seen this lots of times lately - shouldn't it be protest against? Am I losing my mind, or are we losing our grammar? Similarly, shouldn't someone have a debate with someone about something - nowadays people seem to debate other people. Is it just me, or is this wrong? I have heard the arguments about English being an adaptable, evolving language and flexibility being its great strength. I understand that, and I am prepared to accept that words can change their meanings, but I worry that if we start fiddling with grammar, which is the engineering that underpins a language, the whole structure of meaning will collapse.
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Americans have dispensed with a great many prepositions, just like they got rid of the rather charming perfect tenses (replacing them with the uglinesses of 'got' and 'already'). American English, eh?
ReplyDeleteI'm not too fussed if the meaning is still clear. But your example of 'debating other people' does not pass that test.
ReplyDeleteOh no, now I've got myself started - I hate 'rookie' as well. That's American, I think - and under the Sophie meaning test it doesn't work (at least for me), because I don't understand it. Did we have another word for it, or is it a new concept?
ReplyDeletehey, you do the math!
ReplyDeleteaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh
High five, worm.
ReplyDelete