Author Archive

Articles by Merrill Perlman | Email the Author

 

1. Language Corner

   Fraught Fest

   June 27, 2011 01:12 PM

   Kirk Arnott, a retired assistant managing editor of the Columbus Dispatch who keeps his hand sharp with part-time copyediting there, wrote Language Corner that a sportswriter turned in the following passage: A few weeks ago, the Ohio State basketball team... Continue reading

2. Language Corner

   Title Search

   June 20, 2011 02:10 PM

   We love to modify things, to make them as descriptive or as recognizable as possible. It’s not just a house, it’s a “blue house.” Microsoft isn’t just Microsoft, it’s “software giant Microsoft” (or, more recently, “search... Continue reading

3. Language Corner

   Call Me ‘Al’

   June 13, 2011 02:28 PM

   Is an appliance “electric” or “electrical”? Is Sarah Palin visiting “historic” sites or “historical” sites? Is being “politic” the same thing as being “political”? Our tour of the wacky world of English continues. The suffix “-al,” Webster’s New World College... Continue reading

4. Language Corner

   Appositive Negatives

   June 6, 2011 02:38 PM

   Last week, we talked about setting a parenthetical description off with commas in the grammatical phenomenon known as an “appositive.” Now, we’ll discuss how to apply it to everyday descriptions introduced by the articles “a/an” and “the.” “President... Continue reading

5. Language Corner

   Negative Appositives

   May 31, 2011 01:40 PM

   Commas are wonderful tools. They tell a reader to pause, as this one did. They can also tell a reader that some information, called parenthetical information, isn’t needed, as the first two commas in this sentence did. It’s that parenthetical... Continue reading

6. Language Corner

   Name-Calling

   May 23, 2011 03:27 PM

   Arnold Schwarzenegger had sex with a woman who was not his wife, and that woman gave birth to their child. What should the woman in the Schwarzenegger saga should be called? So far, most of the mainstream media have preferred... Continue reading

7. Language Corner

   Out of the Museum

   May 16, 2011 03:30 PM

   Thirty years ago, the only people who were “curators” worked in galleries or museums, deciding what pieces from the presumably vast collection would be shown to the public. The word itself had a slightly archaic air, conjuring visions of wizened... Continue reading

8. Language Corner

   Failure to Launch

   May 9, 2011 02:55 PM

   When the “launch” of the space shuttle Endeavor finally occurs, many “posts” will appear on blogs and news sites around the web until well past the “end” of the mission. And the poor “ing” ending for three nouns will be... Continue reading

9. Language Corner

   Hyphen-ation

   May 2, 2011 03:52 PM

   During the recent gathering of the American Copy Editors Society, a lot of “hyphen” jokes made the rounds. One was “Why we need hyphens: Because thirty-odd editors is not the same as thirty odd editors.” In the... Continue reading

10. Language Corner

    Important News

    May 1, 2011 08:00 AM

    Writers, rejoice! it’s perfectly acceptable to tell people what’s most important by saying “most importantly….” Many people were taught that using “most importantly…” or “more importantly…” was incorrect, especially when beginning a sentence. The scolders said that that “ly”... Continue reading

11. Language Corner

    Balance Due

    April 25, 2011 12:53 PM

    Some grammar battles have been fought for years, and many have been lost. (See “hopefully.”) Here’s another one over the cliff: In a cause-and-effect, or attributable, situation, “due to” should be used only as an adjective, not as a... Continue reading

12. Language Corner

    Just Among Us…

    April 18, 2011 04:42 PM

    Rules tell us what to do, and require no thought. Stop at a red light, or risk getting a ticket. Fill in only the circle in the test booklet, or risk being marked incorrect. Use “between” only for two things,... Continue reading

13. Language Corner

    Boing!

    April 12, 2011 09:31 AM

    Spring has sprung The grass is riz; I wonder where the birdies is. That little ditty, or variations of it, may be the best way for you to remember what the past tense of “spring” is under what circumstances. “The... Continue reading

14. Language Corner

    Less is Fewer

    April 4, 2011 02:04 PM

    More and more, fewer people use “less” and “fewer” the way the language gods intended. “There are less people here than there were last year,” for example, is commonly heard or written. Grammar texts are pretty absolute: Use “fewer” when... Continue reading

15. Language Corner

    Taking Dictator-tion

    March 28, 2011 01:10 PM

    Kevin Adams wondered whether journalists are buying in to U.S. foreign policy terminology, subliminally or not. “I’ve noticed that NPR has been using the term ‘autocrat’ for Gaddafi this week, and I noticed that they were referring to Mubarak as... Continue reading

16. Language Corner

    In Style

    March 21, 2011 01:28 PM

    Last Monday, you could have written an “e-mail” to your friend in “Calcutta,” checked for a response on your “smart phone” or “hand-held,” then answered a call from her on your “cell phone.” But by the end of the... Continue reading

17. Language Corner

    False Tidals

    March 14, 2011 04:53 PM

    Disasters bring out the best in journalism and journalists, and the cataclysmic events in Japan are no different. But in the rush to use vivid, descriptive language, sometimes words get mixed up. The huge waves that washed over the coast... Continue reading

18. Language Corner

    Women’s Suffixes

    March 7, 2011 01:11 PM

    If you die in some states and your son is appointed to handle your estate, he is the “executor.” If it’s your daughter, she is the “executrix.” In other states, both would be “executors.” Those states, it seems, don’t care... Continue reading

19. Language Corner

    Mentee Fresh

    February 23, 2011 04:23 PM

    When you have a “mentor,” what are you (aside from in need of advice)? Before the sixties, you probably would have been called a “protégé,” or “protégée” if you were female. But today, you’re more likely to be called... Continue reading

20. Language Corner

    Rotary Club

    February 22, 2011 12:43 PM

    Some words outlast the things they were coined to accompany, simply because there’s no good alternative. When you write an e-mail on the keyboard, you “type,” though those keystrokes have nothing to do with the small pieces of lead or... Continue reading

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