Grammar, spelling and the decline of the English language

[SoupDragon]

Moving from the Weird Habits thread, I thought I'd share my favourite typo, spotted only last week in Tescos where they were advertising Winnie the Poo play mats. This was both on the big print sign and the smaller shelf label.

My, how I sniggered in a puerile fashion!

Dilatation seems to be the trendy new medical word for dilation e.g. dilatation of the cervix, balloon dilatation. But I could be wrong. It could be the medical version of dilate.

I need to write Something Very Important and want to sound like I know what I'm talking about! I suppose since most of the literature refers to dilatation, I'll have to.

robinw, I don't think "to boldly go" is less precise than "to go boldly." I think the two differrent word arrangements have two different meanings. In the former, the emphasis is put on boldly and in the latter the emphasis is on go or possibly on where the subject is going. For example if you were to complete the sentences: "To boldly go forward is better than to timidly go forward." vs. "To go boldly forward is better than to not go boldly forward." or " To go boldly forward is better than to go boldly backward."

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SueW I think, but could be wrong, that dilatation is an Americanism whilst dilation is "proper" English.

Actually, as a transplanted Yank, creeping Americanization of the British language really perturbs me. Boots now announces that they have offers on in the "store". Sainsbury's no longer sells savory biscuits, instead they're "crackers". I can tell a lot of language changes are happening because of US TV programmes. Makes me feel all creepy.

Because I'm a social scientist it drives me nuts to read "data" used in the singular. It's a plural noun! Data ARE! Datum IS! Data ARE!!!!!!!

But zebra, isn't "data" what they call a collective noun (at least that's what I think it's called) like "crowd" or "population." It's a singular word describing something that is plural in nature. You would never have only one datum in a scientific experiment. You can legitimately blame us Americans for all sorts of things, but complaining about a few words "creeping" into the language is a bit nitpicky. Also, I think it implies that the British are dumb, which I don't think they are. Presumably the words have been adopted because they are somehow a more apt expression than the existing "English" word and not because they were forcefed to an unsuspecting population. Sorry, but I'm getting a bit tired of the "Americans" being blamed for everything.

Wouldn't they have been "savoUry biscuits" if we're meant to be avoiding Americanisation?

Oh, Sophia ? please don't take it personally . I'm sure most of us don't have anything against americans (except perhaps your president), it's just that we're not american, and hearing perfectly english people using americanisms, frenchisms, whateverelseisms can sound a bit, well, affected. I know it happens, and I know languages develop and change, but I for one don't feel particularly comfortable about owing those changes to the likes of Jennifer Aniston and the guests on the Mark Lettermann (sp?) show. Perhaps I'm just a snob.

My real pet hate is people using adjectives instead of adverbs - 'He played superb'. No, 'he played superbLY'. Grrr.

SophiaAmes, as zebra says, if you write an academic paper and put 'data is' instead of 'are', you will be pounced upon from a great height. Data ARE.

Slug! HAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!! Brilliant!

SofiaAmes (HI!!!!!!) there are some wonderful Americanisms which I consider have enriched our language (and a lot of them come from shows like Friends, and even ER, I love all those GSWs and RTAs) but there is just one that I loathe and detest and hold the US responsible for and that is "for free".

The battle is over now, even the respectable broadsheets use it, but either a thing is "free" or you get it "for nothing" and there is something intrinsically grammatically wrong about "for free" which makes me cringe (I am a terrible pedant) but which I can't put my finger on, or find an example to explain why it's wrong, to justify my obsession with it.

There - got that off my chest - feel better now!

For whether something should be "thing and me" or "thing and I" - you just take away the "thing and" - eg you would never say goodnight from I. (Unless you are Dame Edna E.) And I hate rogue apostrophes. And Haitch.

Thread too long to catch up tonight!

Thanks Jimjams. I suspected that too.

I really ought to go upstairs and check out my late MIL's dictionary collection that we inherited but they got packed away into boxes when we had to move a bookshelf and have never been put back on the shelf (which has now been taken over by DD's games).

I suppose actually that should be 'it got packed away' seeing as I was referring to the collection.

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This thread is very scary for me! You all sound so brainy!

However, I do have a question. I have noticed something in the New Zealand Herald that I have never come across before and thought I would ask you clever people what you think. Is the word 'farewell' a verb? Several times I have read things like: 'the fans farewelled the rugby star' or 'the family were farewelling a good friend at a party when ... '
This usage pops up all the time and it is really beginning to annoy me as it sounds all wrong!

Is it wrong or not?

The American phrase that bugs me the most is when you hear (in America) that something will be "stopping momentarily". OK, obviously it's fine in America - they speak American, not english but is it actually correct in English too? In my mind, momentarily implies 'for a moment', not 'in a moment' which is what they mean.

SoupDragon - you're right, that one really annoys me too. It's the wrong use of English! And my other pet hate is "to deplane". I know it's a logical new verb but it sounds so lazy - what's wrong with disembark?
Ghosty - I've never heard "farewell" used as a verb, I would say it's wrong.

zebra- I think in the latest Oxford English Dictionary data can now be used in either form. I have a very special reason for remembering this anouncement in the News (honestly)- I'm not really Miss Pedantic

Bloss - my spellcheck is set to British English, so Microsoft don't have that excuse. Interestingly, none of the dictionaries (eg the Cambridge International Dictionary) I have looked up have "liase" as an American variant (even thouh they've got words like "analyze" and "program" ). However, because of the world-wide power of Microsoft, I'm sure that "liase" will soon become the "correct" spelling!

"Farewelling"? Eeuw! Definitely and horribly wrong - and ugly IMO.

I know, aloha and Fionn... it's awful isn't it? ... and it is really beginning to bug me now ...
I know that when I write I keep putting in dots ... but I can't help it ... it is my way of showing that I am thinking as I type ... all wrong I know but when I write a formal letter you can believe that it is in tip top grammatical form ... and I have never had too much problem with spelling... so there all you boffins you!!!

I think we have to think of email and internet postings as being closer to conversation rather than gramatically correct correspondence. Therefore pauses and tailing offs are perfectly legitimate...

I tend to type emails more like how I'd speak rather than how I'd write a letter. Except if I'm emailing in a more formal capacity.

Type it like it is spoke!

Similarly, has anyone heard of "growing" used as a transitive verb? I work in a large company, and I've noticed the term "growing the business" (or the brand, or the company) cropping up increasingly in those gung-ho corporate-type presentations we have from time to time.
Other words which have been putting in a regular appearance on my buzzword bingo card are "benchmarking" (does anyone know what that means? I'm afraid I'm too embarrasssed to ask now it's been part of every presentation I've been at for the last 18 months) and "blueskying". I find myself drifting off into a daydream about the CEO with a giant watering can floating in a clear, blue sky and not taking anything in. Perhaps this is the intention.

In a way boards like this one and emails have evolved their own kind of dialect. We compose them like speech without the preamble, formality or etiquette of written communication. Yet they are written, so any spelling or grammatical mistakes are glaringly obvious. I can't spell or 'do grammer' or punktuation.
Maybe the online community is developing its own dialect and linguistic norms. Does this dilute the English language or enrich it?