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Columbia Journalism Review content tagged Language Corner

1. October 1, 2012 03:02 PM

   ‘They’ said so

   Pronouns without sex

   By Merrill Perlman

   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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2. February 6, 2012 05:52 PM

   Addressee Unknown

   Another comma goes AWOL

   By Merrill Perlman

   The Super Bowl is over, thank heavens, so all those incorrectly punctuated signs rooting for one team or another can come down. You know the ones: They say “Go Giants” or “Go Patriots.” In telling the Giants (or Patriots—no partisanship here) to “go,” the sign is making a direct address to the team. And in direct addresses, the person or...

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3. September 25, 2012 10:49 AM

   Apparently not

   The trouble with the apparent heart attack

   By Merrill Perlman

   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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4. June 6, 2011 02:38 PM

   Appositive Negatives

   Some things are not unique

   By Merrill Perlman

   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 Obama saw a movie” tells you about the activity, but not what movie he saw. Adding that information may require a comma,...

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5. March 19, 2012 03:03 PM

   Beggars Can Be Choosers

   Questioning the questions

   By Merrill Perlman

   Every so often it’s important to revisit an issue, to clarify or modify it, depending on the circumstances. It “begs the question” whether revisiting something is needed. After all, revisiting is important, because it allows revisiting, which is important. And if it’s not important, it “begs the question,” why ask about revisiting at all? There. All three uses of “beg...

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6. July 30, 2012 03:00 PM

   Bell curves

   Lots of “ring” words

   By Merrill Perlman

   “You must be a ringer,” the journalism instructor told the student, who insisted that, though he had many years of experience in other jobs, he had never been a journalist. “I admit I had to look that term up,” the student said later.” I wasn’t sure if it calling me a ringer was a compliment or an insult.” Compliment, but...

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7. September 12, 2011 01:00 PM

   Bodily Functions

   The scent of a language

   By Merrill Perlman

   The scene may have been a long coach ride or a London park bench on a hot day, but the heart of the (probably apocryphal) anecdote about Dr. Samuel Johnson remains the same: A woman of some means says to a sweating Johnson, “Sir, you smell.” Johnson replies, “No, Madame. You smell. I stink.” In the anecdote, Johnson’s point, probably...

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8. April 12, 2011 09:31 AM

   Boing!

   Springing to the past

   By Merrill Perlman

   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 Tigers finally sprung ahead for a 49-48 double- overtime 4A victory,” one sports story said. But, almost in the next...

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9. June 13, 2011 02:28 PM

   Call Me ‘Al’

   Another confusing suffix

   By Merrill Perlman

   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 Dictionary (Fourth Edition) says, creates an adjective meaning “of, like, or suitable for.” That’s easy when dealing with some words:...

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10. October 16, 2012 06:50 AM

    Career advice

    On the fast track to ‘careen’

    By Merrill Perlman

    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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11. November 7, 2011 03:45 PM

    Conjunction-itis

    What about ifs, ands, or buts?

    By Merrill Perlman

    Many generations of students have had certain grammar “truths” drilled into their little heads. One is the “myth” that infinitives can’t be split. But today we’re going to discuss the myth that sentences can’t start with conjunctions. (Actually, whether teachers do indeed prohibit conjunctive beginnings seems to be almost as much a myth as the prohibition itself. But more on...

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12. November 22, 2010 11:31 AM

    Degrees of Rejection

    ‘Refudiate’ may have a use after all

    By Merrill Perlman

    The “words of the year” lists are beginning to appear, and we’re generally going to ignore them, since those words so often disappear. But the selection of “refudiate” as the New Oxford American Dictionary’s word of the year presents an irresistible opportunity.* No, we’re not going to ridicule Sarah Palin. First of all, this is not a political column. Second,...

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13. June 19, 2012 06:50 AM

    Digging in

    The etymology of a “clawback”

    By Merrill Perlman

    “Jamie Dimon: JPMorgan Will Likely Claw Back Pay From Responsible Executives,” the headline said. Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief executive, was telling the Senate Banking Committee that the firm would probably seek to reclaim some pay and bonuses from those involved in the firm’s $2 billion trading loss. What a wonderful image: bankers digging in their “claws” to wrest bundles of cash...

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14. January 10, 2011 02:58 PM

    Duty Double

    When nouns and verbs collide

    By Merrill Perlman

    Headlines are supposed to grab a reader’s attention and provide a fast synopsis of an article for a busy reader. So what’s a reader to think happened when she reads this? “U.S. rules on tax adopted by state” Or this? “Council hires ban bid taxi firm” It’s not instantly clear what either headline is saying, because each includes more than...

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15. June 5, 2012 06:50 AM

    Empty pockets

    A phrase with several meanings

    By Merrill Perlman

    Max Crittenden posted on Language Corner’s Facebook page: I’m seeing some peculiar usage (misuse, to my mind) of the phrase “out of pocket”. “My housekeeper has injured her leg and will be out of pocket for a while.” “Sorry, I’ve been out of pocket and haven’t gotten to your request.” Is anyone else noticing this? To me, “out of pocket”...

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16. July 17, 2012 03:00 PM

    En-gendered

    Terms for sexual identity

    By Merrill Perlman

    Dealing with gender identity these days is a tricky business. And while we prefer to use “sex” to describe biological and procreative characteristics, “gender” has become the more common term to describe identity. A photo caption in The New York Times highlights the situation: A woman writing about her college experience said: “I used to say freshwoman until I was...

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17. May 9, 2011 02:55 PM

    Failure to Launch

    Adding “ing” makes a noun, or not

    By Merrill Perlman

    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 very lonely again. Nouns that end in “ing” are usually gerunds, which, simply put, are verbs acting as nouns for...

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18. March 14, 2011 04:53 PM

    False Tidals

    Not-quite words for natural disasters

    By Merrill Perlman

    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 of Japan, for example, were called “tsunami” and “tidal waves.” Strictly speaking, “tidal wave” is incorrect, because the wave is...

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19. October 9, 2012 06:50 AM

    Forward-looking

    Ways of telling the future

    By Merrill Perlman

    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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20. June 27, 2011 01:12 PM

    Fraught Fest

    Can something be ‘fraught’ without ‘with’?

    By Merrill Perlman

    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 entered the roiling rapids of the Big Ten schedule. It was undefeated then, but the way ahead was fraught and,...

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