Apostrophe latest
Punctuation Mark
I am a great admirer of Mark Lawson, but I'm afraid to say that there was a misplaced apostrophe in his piece on critic-proof products in yesterday's G2: "Julia Robert's current Broadway performance in Three Days of Rain met thumbs jabbed down . . ." Clearly, pieces for G2 are written in haste, often overnight, so I'm going to forgive Mark this slip of the key, but where were the subs? On the bench?
A TV ad for the new Red Hot Chili Peppers' presumably appalling new album Stadium Arcadium features the following caption: "The Chili's first studio album for four years." Actually, it's in capitals:
THE CHILI'S FIRST STUDIO ALBUM FOR FOUR YEARS!
And, as if to destroy my theory that the poor English that now proliferates the media is a result of Thatcherite education policy in the 80s (and subsequent failure to mend it), I've just finished Fred Harrison's book Brady And Hindley: Genesis Of The Moors Murders (as recommended here), published in 1986, and it contains not one but three instances of a house belonging to the singular - eg. "the Smith's house". (On an unrelated note, he also likes a cliche, Mr Harrison, and actually writes, "He would make him eat his words with a knuckle sandwich.")
Be careful out there.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 8:41 AM
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The state of grammar in this country does worry me. However, being 30, I was educated in Thatcher's Britain and mine's okay. I think the blame lies in the fact that people (particularly the youth of today - get me!) just don't read any more. My old English teacher stated that it was the single best way to tighten up your language and punctuation skills.
The recent explosion of the university education hasn't helped one iota either. A recent graduate that I sit next at work had to have the word "forlorn" explained to her the other day and it wasn't a one off either.
The fact that she graduated with a better class of degree than me begs a question surely.....but that's a whole new can of worms.....
"He would make him eat his words with a knuckle sandwich."
Alan Partridge is writing again? Wonderful.
i'm a year younger than you andrew and was a thatcher era schoolkid. (i 'done art' so must've been thick though). However i think it's just laziness these days. I'm one of those people that spells out their texts in full. I also point to the fact that most typesetting these days is produced by designers, not professional typesetters as in days of old. And as we all know, design school has little or no requirement for basic english, mathematics or even the ability to draw in some 'universities'. So they can use the computer and all the programmes; 'be creative' but can't spell.
I see this one time and time again on CD inlay artworks: "hits of the 80's" or "hits of the 90s'". I've even seen "hit's of the 90s". They know it needs one but not quite sure and randomly drop one in.
Google for the 'apostrophe protection society' - there's some classics in there. (or is that classic's?)
"Where's your Grammer?"
"At home with my Grampa"
Grammar, I meant grammar. Bugger!
According to both Fowler and the OED, an apostrophe is unnecessary in an abbreviated plural (e.g. MPs) or to indicate decades (e.g. 1980s). Grammar and punctuation do develop and change and it'd be daft to let them ossify, which is not to say some of the wilder excesses should be got away with!
I was a child of the 80s too: the first time I did any formal grammar was in German aged 11 but my spelling and grammar isn't bad (at least I don't think it is!). I agree that the problem is people not reading much (along with the eccentricity of the English language!). Kids now do huge amounts of formal grammar as part of the literacy hour but the lessons are structured so tightly that they have hardly any time to read books or engage with real texts, which is very sad.
It's a good point about learning foreign languages, I'm pretty sure I picked up most of my understanding of English grammar from learning (very badly, admittedly) French, German (and really, really badly) a bit of Latin.
My personal pet-apostrophe-peeve: The dropping of the "s" if a person's name ends in an "s".
Jesus' sandals.
Peter Jones' wit.
Laugh in your boss' face.
Grrrr.
I had barely started school when the witch left office. A lot of the problem is the over reliance on spell checkers and the like.
N0w teh kidz all tlk + rite lik dis + i cant k33p up.
Could be that standards haven't dropped, just failed to improve sufficiently now that the rules are more important than ever with speedy computer communication - how often do you re-read emails you've sent and realise they could be read in many ways? The apostrophe has always been tricky and I'm not sure that reading teaches you how to use them correctly - I'll give it try though.
In today's Independent the second leader says, in relation to schools, that: "Satisfactory can never be good enough." So what does satisfactory mean then, eh? I'm not criticising though, since they've also printed a letter from me in which I've used a word incorrectly. I've been pissed off about that all day.
It does pain me to say this but "proliferates the media" is surely not what you mean. And no, that doesn't make me feel big and clever: I don't even know what "congratulate" means, apparently. Feel free to rip this comment apart.
A Red Hot Chili Peppers album can only be appalling, can't it? And 28 tracks?! Christ.
I think it's just laziness all round. I work with a team of 5 people and I'm the only one who seems to be able to spell. They are of varying ages and one of them actually has a dictionary in his drawer. We all use computers with spell checkers, so there is no excuse. Words often mis-spelt are "aggreed" and "tommorrow". These even look wrong when you write them so why do they think they are spelling them correctly?
I think it's a bit harsh to complain about someone who doesn't know the meaning of a certain word though.
I'm usually ok with spelling and punctuation, but my vocabulary isn't as good as it could be. I read lots of books and look up words I don't know, but I can never remember them for next time!
For the record, I am 35.
Andrew, this made me laugh out loud, great comment - "A TV ad for the new Red Hot Chili Peppers' presumably appalling new album Stadium Arcadium..."
One last thing, I always thought that it was ok to leave the "s" off if a person's name ends in an "s".
When I first read that I thought the book was called the GENIUS of the Moors Murders. I was surprised I haven't heard of such a controversial book.
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