What Gets Your Goat?

[Harold]

This is the spot for grumpy men & women of all ages.

As new subjects will be posted here, rather than start a new thread for each, any reply can best be made specific to a posting by using the "quote" feature.

To start us off:

The misuse of the English language (in the UK) on a daily basis annoys me. The main culprits are journalists and politicians but acadamics can be just as bad. I come across most examples on the BBC, Radio 4 in particular.

The latest example is "times greater than". This is used as in e.g. "50 is 5 times greater than 10". No it isn't it's 4 times greater. It is correct to says "5 times as great as."

Then there is the incorrect form "different to". The correct form is "different from". I suggest that "to" means to approach and "from" means to move away from. This misuse is widespread and could indicate use by those who should not be in this country. There is one weather forecaster who uses this but his very posh accent gives him away as some kind of spy (just as WW2 spies learned English from Bertie Wooster stories).

Beware of infiltration from the USA too, as evidenced in the pronunciation of "leverage". The Rice woman even converted Jack Straw.


Harold

[Paul Beard]

I get annoyed by the number of people who start a sentence with "Yes,no" . You may not have noticed it, but keep your ears open and you will soon hear some.

[Harold]

Then there are the sophisticated ones who like to use words of Latin or Greek derivation.

Hardly a day goes by without some media (a Latin plural)personality using the phrase "this/a/ phenomena", or variations thereof. The singular is phenomenon (Greek).

Likewise with, the less commonly used, "strata", the singular being stratum (Latin).

I have to let "data", as in "this/the data" go, as what is usually being referred to is a set of data or "data set" but datum (Latin) is the singular.

Harold

[Harold]

I say I say, I say. Actually I don't necessarily.

The media is/are (see previous item) very fond of making sweeping generalisations. One type starts off "Scientists say." Having been employed for around 35 years in a scientific establishment, wearing a white coat and being given lots of chemicals and equipment to play with, I think I have played the part of a scientist with some success.

I can't remember the issue in the news at the time but I remember part of a coffee room conversation about it. One of my female colleagues said "Scientists say that do they? Well, I'm a scientist and I disagree." I said "I'm a scientist too and I agree with you". There were many other, similar disclaimers.

Don't believe all you hear or read that originates from even the most respected of journalists.

Harold

[Paul Beard]

I was like.......and the he was like......

What is all this 'I was like......' about, when the person actually means 'I said.....

[matthewnoble]

Your just both stick in the muds, all languages are constantly evolving, and although perhaps the present phases annoy you, wait until the present crop of text and msn savvy children make it on to the media, they now talk in acronyms! TTFN.

[Paul Beard]

I know wot u mean, it's a good job language duth changeth

Cheers M8 ;D

[Harold]

I don't want to fight with anyone over it. (This has an opposite meaning to that of a few centuries ago).

(I was going to leave the posting as above. However, as it was not grumpy, I would have felt obliged to have debarred myself from this thread).

Yes, language does evolve but ours is tending to fall apart in some aspects. Much of this is due to sloppy script editing by news and current affairs programmes. Politicians are concentrating so hard on not answering the question that they are careless with what they do say. Also, Eastenders, and its ilk, is probably the English tutor for its adherents.

On somewhat of a tangent, our genes are expressed in different ways when we have extra copies, recently found to be a very common occurence. I suppose that is similar to an everyday situation: one flag with a red cross on a white background signifies St George and England, flying two such flags is a cry for help from someone desperately in need of a life.

There is a lot of sloppiness in the news media. There was the case of the footballer aiming a 'karate kick' at a spectator. I saw that. It was a third-rate wrestling kick, there being nothing like it in karate, where I was an instructor for many years. Of course, since Watergate, every major scandal has been XYZ-gate. I'm disappointed that the Prescott plan to use parts of gardens in southern England to build thousands more houses has not been called Garden-gate. You read it first here, folks.

Getting back to changes of meaning, I have a form from the Inland revenue, stating that tax due amounts to several hundred pounds. I shall give them a week or two and then ask where their cheque has got to.

Harold

"Second* in command". * Should that signify a rank or a duration?

[Paul Beard]

Mixed metaphors...... is it 'the thin end of a slippery wedge' ?

[Harold]

Then there is the 99 phenomenon.

Take two cameras of equivalent specification. Both are priced on the same page but by different retailers:

£500 & £499-99

Now, which looks the lower price at a glance?

I make a point of avoiding purchases priced in this way. The seller is trying to insult our intelligence.

There are cases where there is sense in the pricing, For example, a house priced at £249,950 (99s are too 'common' for estate agents) would cost the purchaser 1% less stamp duty than one at £250,000.

Back on the 99, that is not the best way of combining chocolate and ice cream.

Harold

[Paul Beard]

Two for the price of one. That's fine on stuff I want two of, but occsionally I only want one.

Please can I have just one at half price, er I don't think so.

[Harold]

admin said:

Two for the price of one. That's fine on stuff I want two of, but occsionally I only want one.

Please can I have just one at half price, er I don't think so.

I deliberately avoid the TV-advertised optician who offers an extra pair of specs 'free'. What they mean is that they make twice the mark-up they need on the first pair. How many pairs of glasses can a man wear at one time? (The ladies have different needs, requiring one pair for the top of their head).

Sliced bread is another good example of ignoring customers' preferences. All are labelled medium or thick. So much for the anti-obesity campaign. I even saw the latest yesterday - extra thick.

Who buys furniture from DFS when it is not reduced to half price? (You can't pay them cash, either, I tried, you have to pay over 3 or 4 years). What bothers me, at retirement age, is that I can't remember the Allied Carpet sale being launched. Is my long-term memory now also failing? Maybe I was very young.

Harold

[Harold]

I am really irritated by journalists who make all-inclusive remarks which, by implication, include me, without any grounds for doing so.

Typical examples are expressions to the effect that 'the whole country...." the context can be as to support for the team or concern about some player's injury. I couldn't care less and take no interest.

Why would I be interested in the antics of a group of men who are highly paid going about an activity of no obvious beneifit to mankind? Is it supposed to be something to do with masculinity?

Why do they feel the need, when they score a goal (the sole purpose for the activity) to pull back their shirt over their face or to take it off? I can understand such undignified behaviour as a rare abberation but it now seems to be compulsory. Is it in the rule book? The phrase 'monkey see, monkey do' comes to mind. That takes me back to the days when there were daily 'chimps tea parties' in zoos. They have long been banned as demeening to the apes but I don't recall any of them performing either action with their shirts.

I'm sure the lady footballers don't behave in this way.

Harold

[Harold]

Why do they call him Sven Urine Ericksson when his middle name is Gorin? Are they taking the Micky?

Harold

[Harold]

matthewnoble said:

Your just both stick in the muds, all languages are constantly evolving, and although perhaps the present phases annoy you, wait until the present crop of text and msn savvy children make it on to the media, they now talk in acronyms! TTFN.

Yes, language evolves but that is no excuse for crass errors. For example, the phrase "one pence". For a start it is an oxymoron, a singular plural. Saddest of all is that the Chancellor has used it, including in a Budget Speech. But, then, there is one person I would not put in charge of the finances of a coffee club!

Harold