Hate to admit it, but I'm up there also.   I know, I'm old, and I'm a language snob, but in a major market,  I want excellent diction enunciation and presentation.    I know the school excuse that it's about getting the message across clearly,, and the transport shouldn't matter, but I personally believe it does.  

A lot.

 

Really want to hear the English language get royally butchered?  Try CNN.  It's deplorable.  Along the way I've read a few scripts.  I'd correct the errors and subsequently read them accordingly.  It's one thing for someone to write that 'stuff' and quite another for me to agree with their 'take' by reading it as written.  No can do...to this day.

Yelling at the clouds?!?!?!?!?

Take off eh?

What bugs me to no end is when people express a reduction in the quantity of something by saying it's a certain times less.

They'll say it's 4 times less rather than 1-quarter of.

If you have 100 of something, 1 time less leaves you with zero.  4 times less leaves you with -300.

But 1-quarter of 100 is 25, which is probably what the the author intended.

There is a reason why the medical and legal professions have such specific (and to many, daunting) terms that they use.  It's to make sure there is no ambiguity.  Common English can achieve the same thing if used properly.

 

Good gravy, this thread gets me going. 
I agree with all the points so far, especially the fewer/less situation.  It's basic grammar.
Also the lack of proper sentence structure drives me mad.  Broadcasters seem to be just speaking in headlines.
And while the dropping of the g, turning words like working into workin' gets under my skin, I go bananas when I hear so-called professional broadcasters drop the g and replace it with "een" as in come-een an go-een and work-een.

And don't make the argument that it's the evolution of the language.  It's just wrong.

Now all you kids -- get off my lawn!!!
And where's that bag of Werther's Original?

 

unclefester wrote:

Another thing I've noticed now seemingly solidly entrenched in the English language is the starting of a sentence  with the word "so"...

Have you folks noticed this....unlike dropping the letter g off the end of words...using   the word "so" to begin a sentence IS epidemic.

I've heard the premier of Ontario do it quite often, the deputy premier too, I've heard academics (yes!!!) and professionals (yes!!!) and the man on the street does it too...most often but not always while being interviewed. It drives me nuts. I'm talking about the highly educated and articulate here. It's obvious  they are "gathering" their thoughts but why a sentence has to start with the word "so" I just don't get. 

Are they from the valley ???

And how did it become so bloody common ?? Age, gender social status...it doesn't seem to matter.

Soooooo......if  you pay close  attention you will hear it just about every day somewhere or other.

And while I'm at it there's a university football head coach at a highly successful school around these parts who in a 60  second interview will use the term..."ya know'...6 or 7 times on average...

So now ya' know...




 

Although I agree with every post, THIS ^^^ is the one that drives me batty the most. Yelling at the Radio Batty.
DON'T start a sentence with SO...DAMMIT!!

Tq345 wrote:

Good gravy, this thread gets me going. 
I agree with all the points so far, especially the fewer/less situation.  It's basic grammar.
Also the lack of proper sentence structure drives me mad.  Broadcasters seem to be just speaking in headlines.
And while the dropping of the g, turning words like working into workin' gets under my skin, I go bananas when I hear so-called professional broadcasters drop the g and replace it with "een" as in come-een an go-een and work-een.

And don't make the argument that it's the evolution of the language.  It's just wrong.

Now all you kids -- get off my lawn!!!
And where's that bag of Werther's Original?

 

"Een" seems to be common among English speakers from Quebec and french parts of Ontario. I have worked with two people who said "een" and both were from french speaking parts of Canada but both spoke English.

listen closely to geo noori. he says 'een'. i say it's a slight impediment.