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October 21, 2007
the following quirks of language drive me up a tree
1. the ever-more-common replacement of the present tense with a gerund, for example "I'm liking" for "I like." Where did this come from? Ba-da-bup-bup-ba, I'm lovin' it McDonalds commercials, maybe, but it seems too widespread; I hear people do this who wouldn't be caught dead in a McDonalds.
2. describing something as right, wrong, good, interesting, etc on "so many levels," "any number of levels," etc.
3. the noun "issue" and the verb "address."
4. the use of "we" to mean the absolute opposite of we, as in "what are we doing to address this issue," or "have we found a fix," or "where are we regarding the deadline?" I used to hear this all the time when I worked in corporate IT, usually from project managers or business analysts or VPs who thought that imperiousness could inspire fear, and were very used to getting their way. It's sort of like the royal we, but much more annoying. Thanks god I don't hear this much in the world of massage therapy.
5. pointless overemphasis: there's this one guy with a running blog who never runs; instead, he "clocks," "pushes," "rams it on home" (or whatever) umpteen miles, and every run is a workout. Sheesh, the poor guy must be so tired from all that clocking and pushing and ramming. His blog entries make me tired. Even I know that a couple of 9min-pace runs can be helpful sometimes.
Posted by joe positive at October 21, 2007 5:31 PM
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Comments
1. "I'm liking" is present progressive tense, not gerund phrase. But, I agree, it's overused and too informal.
2. Absolutely. The language is vague and meaningless.
3. Such as "I have an issue with..."?
4. My absolute #1 pet-peeve. It's presumptuous and arrogant. It's one thing in academic language, another thing in conversation. That said, Southerners tend to say "we'll see you later" etc.--but somehow, it comes off as less affected and more honest.
5. Imagine what that PR might be if it he ran some laid back mileage? But what do I know, I've--or we've messed ourselves up recently.
At the end of the day, I think you're refering to how language becomes somewhat meaningless when it becomes A) corporatized OR B) homogenized and non-specific.
Posted by: tuscaloosarunner at October 22, 2007 9:48 PM