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alan20 · M
I do think there's a problem with the use of the English language. Thus we were told locally that one group of women who were kicking a ball around a field had "thrashed" another group similarly employed. That must have been worth the watching! A local shopkeeper had "admitted" that a new one-way traffic system was adversely affecting his business; had he previously denied it? And so on. I wouldn't go back to the days when radio news readers had to wear evening suits but script writers need to be more careful about the language than "The Sun".
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@alan20 I agree.
Other examples are the sloppy misuse of technical terms, in metaphors meant to sound clever:
[i]Epicentre[/i], from seismology, does [u]not [/u]mean [i]centre[/i].
You might choose your [i]course [/i](of action, policy, life, etc.), but you [u]cannot[/u] choose your [i]trajectory[/i].
[i]Technology[/i], invented I think in the 1930s, is a word that never really had a proper definition but is now so utterly debased, that is as lazy and meaningless as its ugly abbreviation, [i]tech[/i].
[i]Fracking[/i] is no more than slang, invented by American drilling-rig labourers; though the proper term, [i]hydraulic fracturing [/i] could be shortened to just [i]fracturing[/i], when the context is clear.
'
Something may be[i] inspiring[/i], but is not [i]inspirational[/i]!
The word is [i]mix[/i] or [i]blend[/i], not [i]meld.[/i]
The BBC's music presenters need also learn the difference between [i]acoustic[/i] (adjective) and [i]acoustics[/i] (noun), and that a large hall may be [i]reverberant[/i] but cannot possibly be [i]resonant [/i] to the human ear.
Please teach Melvin Bragg that even though many of his guest historians, like many modern novelists, have never learnt the Past Tense; he should have done. Weather forecasters similarly: but they need know the Future Tense!
@@@
There was a genuine reason for the formal dress in the past. The announcers themselves often had to interview important people - and politicians - in a studio or office so needed present themselves in a fully professional, smart style.
Their rather over-cultivated Received Pronunciation was allied to this. It stemmed from expecting high-quality British English clearly understood even to overseas listeners, or studio guests, for whom English was their second language.
Now many interviews are by telephone; increasingly unreliably so, probably due to increasing use of portable rather than wired, telephones.
Other examples are the sloppy misuse of technical terms, in metaphors meant to sound clever:
[i]Epicentre[/i], from seismology, does [u]not [/u]mean [i]centre[/i].
You might choose your [i]course [/i](of action, policy, life, etc.), but you [u]cannot[/u] choose your [i]trajectory[/i].
[i]Technology[/i], invented I think in the 1930s, is a word that never really had a proper definition but is now so utterly debased, that is as lazy and meaningless as its ugly abbreviation, [i]tech[/i].
[i]Fracking[/i] is no more than slang, invented by American drilling-rig labourers; though the proper term, [i]hydraulic fracturing [/i] could be shortened to just [i]fracturing[/i], when the context is clear.
'
Something may be[i] inspiring[/i], but is not [i]inspirational[/i]!
The word is [i]mix[/i] or [i]blend[/i], not [i]meld.[/i]
The BBC's music presenters need also learn the difference between [i]acoustic[/i] (adjective) and [i]acoustics[/i] (noun), and that a large hall may be [i]reverberant[/i] but cannot possibly be [i]resonant [/i] to the human ear.
Please teach Melvin Bragg that even though many of his guest historians, like many modern novelists, have never learnt the Past Tense; he should have done. Weather forecasters similarly: but they need know the Future Tense!
@@@
There was a genuine reason for the formal dress in the past. The announcers themselves often had to interview important people - and politicians - in a studio or office so needed present themselves in a fully professional, smart style.
Their rather over-cultivated Received Pronunciation was allied to this. It stemmed from expecting high-quality British English clearly understood even to overseas listeners, or studio guests, for whom English was their second language.
Now many interviews are by telephone; increasingly unreliably so, probably due to increasing use of portable rather than wired, telephones.