Language Corner
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November 27, 2012 03:13 PM
Whine lovers
Complaining with a British accent
People do a lot of whining. Lately, though, many publications seem to be spelling the complainers (or their complaints) differently.
One editorial said of New York’s subway system: “But quick as a wink, the system was back, with nearly all lines back to pre-storm quality - which, on most days, is pretty damned good, no matter what the professional MTA...
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November 21, 2012 11:00 AM
Popularity contest
Words for the people
The article was discussing a survey on the popular view of marketers and politicians. “Both have a higher perception of their overall effectiveness than the general populace does,” the article said, and “both are disliked by the majority of said populace.” One question in the survey asked which professions “clearly do provide value to society,” and reported that teachers ,...
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November 13, 2012 06:50 AM
Of storms and ships at sea
Let’s not take them personally
We have names. Our pets have names. And so do hurricanes and ships. But, unlike us and our pets, hurricanes and ships do not have sex. Or gender.
So, please, shouldn’t we stop calling them “him” or “her”? It personalizes them to a ludicrous extent.
Hurricane Sandy, which recently devastated parts of the Northeast, is a case in point. News...
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November 5, 2012 01:00 PM
What are the odds?
Dealing with percentages
Take this quiz:
If one candidate has 46 percent of the likely voters, and the other has 48 percent, what’s the gap between them?
If you said 2 percent, go to the back of the line. The gap between them is 2 percentage points. It’s a4 percent difference. (Either way, it probably falls in the margin of error, so don’t...
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November 1, 2012 12:00 AM
Language Corner
There, there
There are many ways to start articles and sentences. There is often a way to avoid beginning with the phrases that begin these two sentences. It can save words, but—more important—it can get readers into the meat of the matter more quickly.
“There are hundreds of apps aimed specifically at babies” can easily be “Hundreds of apps are aimed specifically...
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October 22, 2012 03:16 PM
However you want
Who’s on first?
A Florida correspondent writes:
My boss is obsessed with Strunk & White, and so tells me that I can never start a sentence with “however” when using it to mean “nevertheless.” I disagree with him and say that I can start a sentence with “however” when I mean “nevertheless” if I put a comma after the “however.” However (lol),...
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October 16, 2012 06:50 AM
Career advice
On the fast track to ‘careen’
Two accidents, two verbs:
In New Jersey, “The car careened down the street and smashed into several parked cars before coming to a stop.”
In Florida, “A Ford Explorer careered out of control, hitting the pedestrian on the sidewalk before smashing into a utility pole.”
If you’ve never heard “career” used that way, you’re probably young.
“Career” as a verb...
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October 9, 2012 06:50 AM
Forward-looking
Ways of telling the future
We have weather “forecasts,” budget “projections,” attempts at earthquake “predictions.” Most dictionaries say those are all synonyms for one another. So why doesn’t the nightly weather report call them “predictions” or “projections”?
Because the weather people know just how fickle Mother Nature is.
A “prediction,” Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary says, is “an inference regarding a future event based on probability theory.”...
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October 1, 2012 03:02 PM
‘They’ said so
Pronouns without sex
Whenever anyone who loves language wants to start a robust discussion, they have only to mention “gender-neutral pronouns,” such as “they” in this sentence.
The problem is that “anyone,” an indefinite pronoun, is singular, so it needs that singular verb “loves.” When the sentence gets back to “anyone’s” starting a discussion, a third-person singular pronoun is needed. But English has...
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September 25, 2012 10:49 AM
Apparently not
The trouble with the apparent heart attack
The American Heart Association says that heart attacks kill about 1,200 people in the United States every day. In many of those people’s obituaries or death notices, the cause of death will be given as “an apparent heart attack.”
Except, as many a journalism professor has noted, “apparent heart attacks” can’t kill; only real heart attacks can kill.
This advice...
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September 24, 2012 03:00 PM
Prepositions: the last word
Something to not put up with?
The purpose of last week’s posting was to warn against accepting supposedly famous quotations just because they’re repeated frequently. But the biggest reaction came over the supposed quotation from Winston Churchill, all versions of which end with “up with which I will not put.” A link to Ben Zimmer’s research made it clear that there is no definitive proof when...
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September 17, 2012 03:00 PM
Put up or shut up
‘Famous’ quotes that aren’t
Your child’s grade school teacher has asked her to come up with some “famous quotations,” so, naturally, she goes right to her computer and types in “famous quotations.”
The paper she turns in has some really famous ones, including this one, from Winston Churchill:
From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which...
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September 12, 2012 06:50 AM
Swap mete
One word confused with another
Today, we’re going to list some words and phrases that are often used when another is meant. These are not words that have come to mean something else, the way “bemused” has morphed from meaning only “puzzled” to also meaning “wryly amused.” Instead, these are words that are mistakenly used for other words that sounds the same—a homophone or homonym,...
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September 4, 2012 12:24 AM
Language Corner
Few grudges
“Grudge,” from an old German word meaning “lament,” is a lot of fun to say. The noun “grudge” means “hostility or ill will against someone over a real or fancied grievance,” or the cause of that resentment, says Webster’s New World College Dictionary (Fourth Edition). “He bears a grudge because a woman was promoted instead of him” is one example.
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