Based on its excellent review in The Guardian the week before last, on impulse I rang and booked tickets for The Rivals at the Southwark Playhouse. It was just wonderful, and re-exposure to Mrs Malaprop (played by Celia Imrie) was a delight.Whereas I have heard actors give the misplaced words greater emphasis, the particular pleasure of Imrie's performance was that they simply flowed out of her, increasing the sense that the character is entirely unaware of her inappropriate vocabularly; indeed that she remains as relaxed as an 'allegory on the banks of the Nile'.
The experience set me thinking about other examples of the infelicitous use of language.
I particularly dislike over-condensed instructions. For example, I had an email recently that invited me to 'diary forward' certain dates, and last week a ditigal message on a petrol pump gave me a surprisingly latinate instruction to 'commence fuelling'. A piece on relocating to France discussed how incomers 'transition' to life there.
I think the practice is promoted through the strictly enforced limits in digital communication - now that so many application forms (eg UCAS and job) have to be compiled online, and the nation is obsessed by Twitter, the search is on for compound words which can convey more in a tight space.
Do other readers have any particularly hated examples?
Best wishes,
Alison Baverstock
(Course Leader, MA Publishing at Kingston University)
Clare Kirwan on February 9, 2010
I'm not sure Twitter is to blame - I worked for a while on a local paper and my job was to do the NIBs (News in Brief) - often having to turn a 2-page press release to two short sentences. Having worked in PR, too, it's always been about available space.
Some of your examples are less about condensing and more about jargon - which is often longer, not shorter ('start fuelling' versus 'commence fuelling'). The trouble is, once you get used to condensing it becomes harder to write longer pieces. I can barely get a haiku out these days!!
Imogen Dent on February 9, 2010
At art college a few years ago I used to be driven mad by the use of "homage" as a verb; as in "in this work Jones is homaging the Duchampian ethos". Shouldn't that have been "is paying homage to~"? To add to the confusion, it was always pronounced "oh-Marge-ing" as if trying to sound French made it better...
Was I wrong, or out of date? Is "homage" a verb?
Cressida Downing on February 10, 2010
I suffer from living in close proximity to a nerd, and his speech is littered with TLAs (three-letter-acronyms) which he changes at will. It certainly doesn't save time as I challenge him on each, and by the time he's explained it, and rolled his eyes a few times, the gist of the conversation is lost!
Cressida
Jo Herbert on February 10, 2010
I'm not sure if this counts but the pronunciation of certain words has started to worry me. Why are lots of people pronouncing 'nauseous' a la the American way 'norshious'? And likewise 'controversy' and 'secretary'. And just to add to that, I'm hearing more and more people say 'takeout' (instead of 'take-away'), cell phone, flashlight, frosting (as opposed to 'icing'), garbage, trash, mailman, vacation, washroom/restroom and washcloth. It gets my goat. We have so many wonderful and underutilised British words, it's a shame our own colloquiallisms, words and phrases are being diluted. Personally I'd like to see rhyming slang make a proper come back. TTFN (that's for Cressida) Jo
Gina Hams on February 10, 2010
The one thing that really drives me barmy is the use of intials. Doesn't anybody have time to make clear to the listener what or who they are talking about?
Corus - what's that? - used to be British Steel now that I understood and I know I am not alone. At the French Class we discussed how extraordinarily difficult it becomes when it is another language!!
Gina Hams