It's "the worsT", not "the worse"

On Sky last night the news bulletin stated that the White House 'has refuted' a report about the bombing of a school in Iran. I doubted that the White House had. Later I heard more detail on the World Service news which said that the UN report had delivered an opinion about the bombing and that the White House had said it gave no credibility to the findings of the UN report.

Often as not, ‘speaks’ isn’t really the best word anyway. ‘This painting illustrates the role etc’.

I totally agree. I’m just mystified as to why this odd and unsuitable phrase has become so prevalent in academia.

Whoopsie!

I'm even less sure now what it does mean. So I looked it up.
Here's a dictionary entry which suggests speaks about; comments on; addresses; is relevant to.
"1. phrasal verb
To speak to an issue or question is to speak about it or comment on it with knowledge and authority.
I will speak to this issue at the appropriate juncture. [VERBPHRASE noun]
No one is really speaking to the needs, wants, and desires of young people. [VERBPHRASE noun]
2. phrasal verb
If something speaks to an issue or question, it is relevant to it.
Other scientists interviewed said the incident spoke to a wider issue. [VERBPHRASE noun]
This speaks to a more general point. [VERBPHRASE noun] "
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/speak-to

OK, now I understand.

You are happy to use the n-word. Got it.

lol whatever. I’ll wait for your apology when the post is unblocked.

Thanks, Abitofalark.

It’s certainly become established in the academic world but I will always flinch when I hear it. To me it just seems a weird new way of saying something we’ve always managed to say better. I suppose what really bugs me is that I detest jargon and the way expressions get picked up and over-used, and for me, it fails into that category.

The standard of English has definitely fallen. Basic grammar is lacking - I don’t think it is being taught in schools. Very few people nowadays seem to be able to use ‘me’ and ‘I’ correctly e.g it’s only Jane and I at home….doesnt make any sense! You wouldn’t say it’s only I at home. It’s such a basic grammar rule, I’m shocked to see it so often.

It’s also incredibly common to see people get their tenses mixed up e.g saying she’d already went instead of gone, or I’d already ate instead of eaten.

I suspect that spoken and written language is probably of a similar standard to that of the past but what has changed is a belief in ‘correct’ usage amongst teachers and academics. It’s just not fashionable and this is a result partly of the post-modern debunking of authority in all kinds of areas.

You always get the ‘Don’t you know that language is dynamic, and always changing?’ comments. Yes, I know that, but it’s a gradual process and for everyone’s sake it’s helpful to impose basic rules and conventions and to differentiate between what’s OK in colloquial English from what is required in official or formal contexts.

Basic grammar absolutely is taught in schools, in a way that it was not up until the early 2000s. In fact that may be part of the problem - if you get grammaticcal terminology thrown at you (fronted adverbials, anyone?) at school at the expense of actually enjoying writing, it turns you off. It isn't that. It's screens, it's not reading to your children, it's not presenting reading as something pleasurable and it's analysing literature to death at school.

Was that in the era when a preference for correct SPAG was deemed elitist?

Mid 1990s. Unfortunately, in some circles a fondness for correct SPAG has always been deemed elitist, and still is. I've also noticed that quite a lot of people have an aversion to 'unnecessary' words. I've been taken to task for saying 'mournful' when of course I could've just said 'sad.' I've been ridiculed for saying 'smirk' - 'Oi, oi, what's that when it's at home?' There are swathes of people who are ignorant and proud of it; unfortunately my mum was one of them.

Hear hear.

I reach in a secondary school. My colleague is dyslexic. She made a wall display with a very obvious grammatical error. When I pointed this out and advised her to correct it, I was told (by her) that it should be left as it is because ‘mistakes are ok and that we should embrace them’!! 😵‍💫

I mean, there’s no hope for the teenagers we teach if the bloody staff have this attitude!

I had an argument with someone once about de-fuse and diffuse. They seemed to think that they were interchangeable.
The spelling on public forums is generally terrible and an indictment of our education system. (‘Pedal stool’,’rest bite’, both seen on here.)

Isn't it just?

There are some cliches and phrases that I don't mind and others that I react to in the same way as you do to 'speaks to' and have the same irritation at the way they are picked up and are suddenly everywhere. That's partly because the media, the politicians and the chattering classes all talk to each other more than to the actual audience. (Hence the cosy references on the BBC to Jeremy or David or Jane or Anita, when no one listening has a clue who Jeremy or Anita are.) I remember a discussion on Sky with three or four people - a presenter, a reporter, a guest commentator etc - and within five minutes every one of them had used the phrase 'psycho drama'. At that point I switched off.

Another one that came around suddenly was to litigate or relitigate. It was said by Vance in the White House, apparently meaning to argue or dispute. I'd always thought of it as meaning court action. But soon our politicians and chatterers started using it in the political argument sense.

Had to correct a friend's CV and job application many years ago because it was littered with this.
She's now several grades above me and an insufferable prick 😂

As if you were getting above yourself for using a more than basic vocabulary or a vivid word like smirk. Fortunately my mother wasn't like that.

In the example you give, “it is I” is correct. In the dark ages of the 1950s, at a grammar school, we had it drummed into us that “the verb to be takes the nominative”.
It is acknowledged now that this can sound artificial in informal communication and “it is me" is acceptable, although “it is I” should be used formally.

😂

Fair enough - that wasn’t a great example! Another one I had recently was an email which included the line ‘if you have any questions contact Jane or I’. Now that is definitely incorrect, we were always taught to take the other person out of the sentence and it’s easily clear ‘if you have any questions contact me’ …..or myself 😉😂

Defiantly?
Worse?

As evidenced by the fact that only ONE person got up in arms about it. Had it been universally misunderstood there would have been a pile of complaints.