Archive for the ‘Usage advice’ Category
November 18, 2023
… visiopun being my coinage referring to a punning word presented visually — not actually said or printed, but alluded to by some striking image, usually with some lead-on hinting at the pun. An extremely simple, utterly flat-footed example of my own devising:
What do you call a US infantryman from World War I?
(#1)
The image is of a small male figure made of dough, so the punning word is doughboy. (Yes, the Pillsbury Doughboy. I simplified things by using an existing image.)
Now to a complex visiopun passed on to me on Facebook today by Emily Menon Bender (the source is cited in the image):
(#2)
The image is of a pie in the shape of an octopus, so the punning word is octopie (/áktǝpàj/ in my AmE variety), a play on octopi, one of the plural forms of octopus. Cute.
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Posted in Etymology, Inflection, Lexicography, Linguistics in the comics, Puns, Usage advice, Usage attitudes | 1 Comment »
March 16, 2021
Two evergreen topics in grammar and usage: so-called “split infinitives”, where some usage critics have insisted that they must always be avoided, however unnatural the results of this avoidance are; and modifier attachment, where jokes are often made about one of the potential attachments, however preposterous the interpretation associated with this attachment is.
The two topics are connected through their unthinking devotion to dogmas of grammatical correctness: avoid split infinitives, avoid potential ambiguity. A devotion that leads adherents down the thorny path of usage rectitude to using unnatural syntax and entertaining preposterous interpretations.
But first, the thorny path. The (tough) counterpart to the (easy) primrose path.
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Posted in Ambiguity, Formulaic language, Modification, Modifier attachment, Movies and tv, Peeving, Plays, Split infinitives, Stock expressions, Syntax, Usage advice, Usage attitudes | Leave a Comment »
January 13, 2021
(Hanging in my posting queue for some considerable time, but just as relevant now as then.
From John McIntyre on Facebook on 9/6/18:
Guardian writer refers to a “secret cabal” in the Trump administration. What other kind does he think there is?
The crucial point is the definition of cabal. From NOAD:
noun cabal: a secret political clique or faction: a cabal of dissidents.
That is, cabals are by definition secret, and secret cabal is pleonastic, so is to be avoided (in favor of plain cabal). The general principle is the Strunk / White Avoid Needless Words dictum. (Yes, we can dispute the applicability of the dictum in particular cases. More below.)
In my mental filing cabinet, the relevant drawer is labeled pilotless drone, after a specific example I discussed at some length back in 2007. Then, of course, the question will be whether my treatment of pilotless drones carries over to secret cabals
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Posted in Modification, Pleonasm, Semantics, Usage advice | 2 Comments »
December 30, 2020
Liz Climo’s cartoon for today, 12/30, the 6th day of Christmas (“Six geese a-laying” — that is, laying eggs):
(#1)
Prescriptively incorrect, but extraordinarily widespread, lay down (in an imperative to the geese to lie down).
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Posted in Holidays, Inflection, Linguistics in the comics, Usage advice, Variation | 4 Comments »
June 3, 2020
Yesterday on FB a query from my friend P (exchanges edited to remove personal chitchat):
A company is creating an outgoing voice message and they have come to blows over sentence structure. My suggestion to them is to fight bigger battles — but, alas, here we are.
They are going to the mat on “how can I” vs “how I can.”
Given your expertise, which is better?
“Thanks for calling COMPANY. Please tell me, in detail, how CAN I help you?
OR
“Thanks for calling COMPANY. Please tell me, in detail, how I CAN help you.”
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Posted in Pragmatics, Semantics, Syntax, Usage, Usage advice | Leave a Comment »
May 17, 2020
“Title bout”: Wayno’s title for yesterday’s Wayno/Piraro Bizarro:
(#1) Irresolvable stylistic choices? You could just punt, and avoid having to make any choice (if you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 4 in this strip — see this Page.)
Actually, it’s worse that this; between panels 2 and 3, there should be 2.5:
Based off true events
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Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Usage, Usage advice, Usage attitudes, Variation | 2 Comments »
November 12, 2019
Tell it to Kim. Tell it to me. Tell it to Kim and I.
The new paradigm for case-marking of pronouns, including the nominative conjoined object (NomConjObj) in to Kim and I — now judged to be the correct form by a large population of young, educated American speakers, as against the judgments of older speakers, who use instead accusative conjoined objects (AccConjObj), as in to Kim and me.
Entertainingly, the new paradigm is evidenced in tv comedies in which grammatically fastidious characters freely use NomConjObj and even admonish those who use AccConjObj.
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Posted in Errors, Movies and tv, Peeving, Pronoun case, Style and register, Usage, Usage advice, Variation | 5 Comments »
February 13, 2019
From a mail pointer to a 1/30/19 article in the journal Psychological Science, “Similarity Grouping as Feature-Based Selection” by Dian Yu, Xiao Xiao, Douglas K. Bemis, & Steven L. Franconeri:
Individuals perceive objects with similar features (i.e., color, orientation, shape) as a group even when those objects are not grouped in space.
Point at issue: individuals rather than people, a mark of a consciously formal, “scientific” way of writing, appropriate (some believe) for reporting on research in psychology.
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Posted in Context, Lexical semantics, Psychology, Style and register, Usage, Usage advice | Leave a Comment »
February 2, 2019
The author of the little — 67-page — guidebook The Old Editor Says: Maxims for Writing and Editing (first published in 2013), the old-school newspaper editor John E. McIntyre, writing as a curmudgeonly, sometimes imperious, character of the same name, as seen on the book’s front cover:
(#1) The name of this image file is McIntyreOldEdtor.jpg; that fact will eventually become significant
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Posted in Books, Errors, Typos, Usage advice, Usage attitudes, Writing | 1 Comment »
