Opuscula “Most unique” English heard From talking heads

When I was a child I loved to read; I had a library card before first grade. (I had an “in” at the Local Lending Library, the “L³.”)

In school – from primary through college – I always did well in English classes.

When I was a young man I worked as a newspaper reporter (having moved from the back shop to editorial). My bible on use of the English language was the AP style guide.

Later I worked as a technical writer who wrote according to government standards, i.e., U.S. Government Printing Office, Harvard, and Chicago University.

As a husband of a lady who has English as her fourth language, and as the father of three, I always stressed the importance of using “correct” English, both the words and the grammar.

My son, now a cop, has an English degree from a U.S. university. My daughter grew up to become a high school English teacher, albeit one who follows the British grammar rules. (She received her degree overseas where the English influence still lingers.)

It should be no surprise that when we – any of the family – listen to the tv talking heads (“anchor people” and “reporters”) we automatically correct these folks' English.

It’s easy.

The most common faux pas is modifying “unique.”

From the mouths of college graduates come the words “most unique,” “very unique,” and similar attributes.

From Oxford Dictionaries: There is a set of adjectives—including unique, complete, equal, infinite, and perfect—whose core meaning embraces a mathematically absolute concept and which therefore, according to a traditional argument, cannot be modified by adverbs such as really, quite, or very.

Far too often we hear the on-air professionals take a simple sentence and contort¹ it, often altering – sometimes reversing – the intent of the sentence. What’s “right” becomes “left,” what’s “up” becomes “down.”

I’m not 100 percent certain that the talking heads are solely to blame. Many, certainly at the network level, have professional² writers to prepare their scripts. Apparently neither local stations nor the networks can afford editors, fixtures at all newspapers. (I am not equating bloggers-as-”journalists” with newspaper people – from copy boy (or copy girl) to reporters and editors.)

It is not only a lack of English language and grammar that we find objectionable, it is the editorializing in what passes for a “news” story.

While tv stations lack an editorial “page,” stations often set aside time for editorial comments, usually presented by management (which frequently has a better command of the language than the professionals regularly before the cameras).

The lack of education in English – perhaps other languages as well – is not a state or region-specific thing. Locally we have talking heads from across the contiguous³ states; one talking head was educated in California, the other in Florida. Both believe “unique” is modifiable.⁴; in one morning “news” report each incorrectly used “unique” as if the mistake was as catching as the latest version of the influenza virus.

My ears have not been – at least recently – abused by “irregardless,” although “over” rather than “more than” and “under” rather than “less than” permeates both “news” and advertisements.

I realize English is a living language, but I suspect many of the talking heads (and their writers, if any) are making a valiant effort to murder it.

---

Sources

1. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/contort

2. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/professional, 2nd definition, a. and c.

3. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/contiguous

4. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/unique, see Usage

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

BCPLANNER: Post a Comment