On sports-talk radio one gets a good sense of what is happening to the English language. College-educated hosts regularly abuse the language in ways that would frustrate their teachers to no end. For example, one of the hosts of one of my . . . Continue reading →
In recent years a number of ersatz words have entered the popular vocabulary (particularly in sports broadcasting). One of the chief offenders is “comfortability.” Comfortability, as in, “He shows great comfortability moving the pocket” is a classic example of the practice of . . . Continue reading →
It’s that time of year. Chapters from MA theses and term papers are beginning to come across my desk and one of the mistakes that I see most often is the confusion of while for though. The latter may be used as . . . Continue reading →
Sports-talk radio is a never-ending source of malapropisms and a good indicator of the state of the language. One abuse which I hear regularly on the radio and in personal conversation is the unnecessary use of the preposition of. A preposition indicates . . . Continue reading →
The other day a sports-talk show host, whom I enjoy, said, “Me and him talked about it.” I was taken aback. As I understand it, this fellow is the child of a school teacher who would surely not permit him to speak . . . Continue reading →
It is easy to confuse two words when they have the same root. This is the case with the adjectives (words that modify nouns or persons, places, and things) incredulous and incredible. As incredible as it might seem and as incredulous as . . . Continue reading →
Not very long ago, as recently as the 1950s and 60s, the most remote public school student in America learned a little Latin. By remote I mean, e.g., rural villages in Nebraska. By the 1970s, however, Latin went the way of phonics . . . Continue reading →
Two popular expressions entered the American colloquial lexicon about a decade ago. I first heard them both used by an evangelical from the American South. He wanted to “speak into” an issue and “love on” some people. It seems as if the . . . Continue reading →