“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”
The sun is still among the missing. Posters have been put up asking people to keep an eye out in case it should appear. The misty rain comes and goes. Gracie has left wet paw prints all over the kitchen floor. The cats are sleeping; of course, they are.
It is getting closer and closer to the end of deck time. Soon all the furniture will be covered and all the flower pots emptied. It makes me sad to know that Saturday night movies are over, they’ll no more reading outside and no more sitting by candlelight at night listening to the wonderful sounds of summer. The leaves are slowly turning, but the deck has debris from the rain: sticks, leaves and acorns. It already looks deserted.
English grammar has clear rules. Like math or even music, there is a right answer or a right tune. People hop all over singers out of tune. They complain about the stupidity of cashiers who need cash registers to tell them the amount of change because they can’t figure it out themselves. Correcting English, though, isn’t acceptable. The reason for this I’m told is communication. It is people understanding each other no matter how they say it. I accept that popular usage has changed a few of the rules like the one where hopefully used to be an adverb, but objects of prepositions haven’t changed at all. On the news the other night I heard the reporter say something like the witness told he and I. That mistake was okayed by the writer, the editor and the reporter who probably shouldn’t be blamed as she just read the news handed to her. Is it too much to ask that we speak our mother tongue correctly? Obviously it is, but don’t you dare sing out of tune or you’ll be excoriated in the newspapers and, worst of all, in social media.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: damp, end of deck time, English grammar, out of tune, prepositions and their objects, rainy day, rules of grammar
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October 4, 2014 at 12:36 pm
The rains are in, it’s cold and miserable and I will need to fire up the heat today. The last weekend of September means the patio furniture returns to its winter home in the basement and I am very glad that I got it done.
Now shall I stay with the Mississippi game or watch Villa and City ? Shall I start a new book ? When is the Basement Tapes shipping ? – I know, a nap. It’s the perfect day for a nap
October 4, 2014 at 1:14 pm
My Dear Hedley,
Skip is my deck closer, and I haven’t yet called him. I will this week but after some sun has dried everything.I won’t put it away wet.
You have the best choices! I’d go with the book then the nap.
October 4, 2014 at 12:52 pm
Hi, Kat,
Not only do tv news people have problems with the objects of prepositions, but the writers for scripted tv shows do as well. It’s got to be the most glaring English language error and causes me to wince every time I hear one. Hope it’s not solely a sign that I’ve fallen farther out of step with today’s communication protocols.
October 4, 2014 at 1:13 pm
Hi Bob,
I correct the TV out loud and also wince when I hear it on TV shows. I agree with you about it being the most glaring error. When I taught grammar, I told my students to remove the first noun or pronoun as in give it to Bob and I. When they said give it to I-they got it. Whether they remember it is another story.
October 4, 2014 at 1:16 pm
We have huge problems here when it comes to our written language. Swedish is now very influenced by the English language. We put different words together to make one word while You have them separate. By separating words here we suddenly write something completely else. One of my favorites is cashier, which is kassapersonal in Swedish. By dividing kassa and personal we suddenly write crappy personnel 🙂
Ads can become fun too, like when they were selling black labrador puppies which in Swedish would be written black labradorpuppies, by dividing labrador and puppies the ad suddenly say that they are selling blacks, labradors ands puppies 🙂 🙂
If anyone would make fun of these wrong writings the ones that knows better than the rest of us says that we are bullies towards people with learning problems. More than half the Swedish population must have that kind of problem now days 🙂
Really nice weather here today and tomorrow will be even better they say but rain will arrive early next week.
Have a great day!
Christer.
October 4, 2014 at 2:09 pm
Christer,
I suspect that if we brought forward people from the way past of our countries, they would have trouble understanding each of our languages.
I chuckled at the sale of those black and the puppies. You must learn quickly not to take the language literally.
It is laziness which often changes language. People now ask, “Do you want to come with?” With is a preposition and needs an object but not any more I guess.
We may finally have some sun tomorrow.
Have a great evening!
October 4, 2014 at 1:42 pm
You don’t even want to get me started about poor grammar (and spelling). Oh, I certainly make a boo-boo from time to time, but at least I’m humiliated/humbled when I do so. It seems like the norm is “So what?” I really don’t know how multitudes of people can think it’s okay to butcher the language. But that certainly seems to be the case.
Apparently it’s apple day on KTCC, so I thought I’d share my very favorite apple song. I believe I may have sent you some songs by Jimmie Spheeris before and this one’s a doozy. If anyone likes this song, I urge them to listen to more on YouTube. It’s a shame his life was cut short; a lot to talent died in that motorcycle accident.
October 4, 2014 at 2:13 pm
im6,
You are so right. Many people don’t care anymore about correct language. I have friends who say the same thing. What difference? You understood me. If I never spoke and pointed or use gibberish when I pointed, would that be okay? I’d be understood.
I think on my other hard drive I have a whole Jimmie Spheeris’ album which I bought after your introduction.
Thanks for this long. I don’t know why it didn’t come up on my hunt.
October 4, 2014 at 3:23 pm
You can take down the posters, the sun is/was here 🙂
If you look for a place where correct grammar is spoken you have to look somewhere else. German is just too complicated to know all the rules and exceptions and usually nobody cares if it’s not too bad for no reason. It shouldn’t be too bad on TV and newspapers. The genitive case is nationwide in decline and the region where I live is also known for incorrect use of the accusative and dative case. Correct commas are often a matter of luck, too many rules and commas. German syntax is quite flexible by default which often translates to wrong English syntax as you can see in my comments 😉
October 4, 2014 at 4:48 pm
Birgit,
Oh, sure, you got the sun. It still hasn’t appeared here.
We don’t have a genitive, accusative or dative case, which I remember from my Latin, but an objective case which seems to cause no end of problems. Do I use I or me? He or him? With only three cases, possessive (easy to understand), nominative and objective, you’d think people would get it.
I know people who when they read what they’ve written and stop to take a breath, put in a common. They figure it must need one there as they had to stop. I won’t even get into the colon or semi-colon.
Your English is amazing!!
October 4, 2014 at 3:40 pm
Hi Kat,
And if you suddenly started to say “That’s not proper English. Try again,” every time someone pulled a grammar booboo, people would think even more poorly of you than just calling you a Grammar Nazi and dismissing you.
I wince a lot while reading or listening to “normal” TV. It’s doubtful that I could diagram a sentence correctly, even if my life depended on it, but the stuff that people pass off as English is just so egregiously wrong it’s an assault on the mind and the ear.
Today the dogs and I went to visit the beaver pond. We haven’t been there all year and Piki Dog has never been there. He was happy. New places, new smells. Then it was on to Bensons for ice cream as a celebration of victory over the drain in the bathroom sink. I had some native red raspberry ice cream in a cone and brought home a quart of peppermint stick for future celebrations. 🙂
It’s dreary and cold and it mists heavily, sometimes actually drizzling. Not what they said was going to happen.
Enjoy the day.
October 4, 2014 at 4:43 pm
Hi Caryn,
I can’t think of the last time anyone diagrammed a sentence. The process became obsolete at some point though it did have a use. When you diagrammed, you saw how each word in the sentence had a separate use and how all of them fit together.
My ears are pained when I listen to what passes as English. I couldn’t never watch some talk shows where English is optional.
We went nowhere. It was just so ugly out I decided to put off the dump until tomorrow. I did call Peapod so I can say I grocery shopped.
Dogs do love new smells.
Have a great evening1
October 4, 2014 at 8:09 pm
Today was absolutely beautiful. Clear skies, light winds and temperature in the 70s. No wonder the State Fair is held in October.
Language is a living thing and it changes with time. We don’t speak or write Elizabethan English or even Colonial English today. Communication is the reason for language anyway and it’s not like math it’s fluid. People living in the a Southwest will eventually be speaking and writing Spanglish. The rules of grammar are just as archaic as cursive writing.
English is now the universal language because it’s adaptable to communicate anywhere.
October 4, 2014 at 8:36 pm
Bob,
That does sound like the perfect day. I love it when the temperatures are in the 70’s. They are the prettiest days here.
The rules of grammar will never be archaic: them pick I. There’s a sentence ignoring the rules. If rules did archaic, we’d all pick and choose our own and communication would be difficult, nearly impossible without a local translator. Colonial English had many of the same rules we have today, just some of the words changed.
English is universal for a variety of reasons. One is that it is easy to learn compared with languages like Chinese or even German. In Indian more than 700 languages are spoken so English is the national language. The historical influence of the British Empire across the world and the current influence of America are two more reasons.
English has so many weird idioms and structures that it isn’t easily adaptable.
October 4, 2014 at 9:37 pm
I was being a bit facetious, yes the rules of grammar are important.
The global rise of English really bothers our French friends. French speakers in Canada nearly seceded in 1995 and forced their Parliament to agree to dual national languages. They are so afraid of losing their culture that they require French first in Quebec and they fight English or any other foreign words from creeping into their non standard version of French. I once flew on Air Canada and each seat had an entertainment system. The screen said choose your language, English, Spanish, French and Parisian French. When I asked the Flight Attendant the difference in French she replied that Parisian French is the real French. Although English is the official aviation language, getting French air traffic controllers to answer pilots who call in English is a safety challenge.
October 4, 2014 at 10:08 pm
Bob,
I know how Parisian French is The FRENCH, at least according to the French.
Canada is a puzzler with its two distinct languages and cultures, and I do understand their wanting to protect that culture. The world is becoming too homogenized as it is.
October 4, 2014 at 11:58 pm
Also distressed about the decline of “proper” English. Some changes I like (the use of gender-free “their” instead of “his or her”), others not so much. We’re accepting mediocrity, sadly, in the disguise of “linguistic diversity”. I think I is rite about that!
PS- saw a great folk concert at U. Maryland last weekend with my D.C. daughter. A tribute to the late Dick Cerri, who had a folk show in Washington for 30 years. Peter and Paul (sans Mary), Tom Paxton, Chad Mitchell, Schooner Fare (sans Tom Rowe), Ann Hills, Steve Gillette/Cindy Mangson, etc. Audience mostly all old, mellow folkies. They now call it “medical marijuana”! Uh, huh…
October 5, 2014 at 10:16 am
Jay,
I like gender free words as well but their is usually misused as it is plural. I don’t know, though, what another option would be.
I agree about linguistic diversity. Sometimes I have no idea what is being said. The words are coined by the ethnic group and I never got the dictionary.
I’m oozing envy here about that concert with so many of my favorites. I’d have been there, another mellow folkie. Did I mention how painful my back is? I may have to visit the canna doctor!!
October 5, 2014 at 11:34 pm
Yeah, having written many policies for many bureaucracies, it’s usually “employees will turn in their ID cards on separation…” which is less accurate, more gender-neutral. Eh… One note on pronunciation to the daytime news anchors… “pen” is not the same as “pin”. Ack!!
Re: Dick Cerri Tribute concert — Peter Yarrow had to check out after one song (flu), but Noel Paul Stookey carried on. He is one of a kind. Cindy Mangson played lead guitar to (husband) Steve Gillette’s “rhythm”. Ha!! Steve is one of the best pickers ever! A fun night. I am SO proud to pass a love of folk/acoustic music along to my daughter!
Ah… Dr. Ganja has an appointment open for Thursday afternoon?? What say, mon??
October 6, 2014 at 10:49 am
Jay,
Employees and their is just fine: agreement was what we called it in the days of grammar teaching.
I haven’t noticed the pin-pen pronunciation, but I suspect now I’ll never miss it as you’ve put the thought into my head.
My sister’s oldest is a huge fan of 60’s rock and plays it all the time. If he didn’t live so far away, I would have introduced him to folk/acoustic music too. What a gift for your daughter!
The only drawback is the cost of the visit: $200.00.