Just couldn't get ahead
Breaking news. In a move that has sent ripples through the industry, the Guardian newspaper today ran a story about the Olympics under the headline "London may forgo 2012 procession after global protests against Beijing games", which, in place of the now accepted phrase "ahead of", employed the grammatically correct alternative, known mainly among older readers, "in advance of." This reversal of the trend towards irritating, Americanised journalese set a new precedent at the newspaper, throwing into confusion the usual, sanctioned gusto with which the idiot phrase "ahead of" has been unquestioningly adopted across the UK news media. "We don't know how it happened," commented editor Alan Rusbridger, ahead of a hastily-convened emergency staff meeting on the use of fashionable, Fox News-style language. "The proper English phrase will be phased out for online editions of the newspaper." Reporters Paul Kelso, Tania Branigan and Vikram Dodd have been suspended pending a full inquiry. Sorry, ahead of a full inquiry.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 8:50 AM
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16 Comments:
Thank goodness. Let's not forget the time and energy we've spent replacing the obsolete and embarrassing word "before" with the altogether shinier and smarter "prior to".
"Ahead of" must rank up there with the phrase "Can I get..." in it's ability to irritate. Why can't people say "Please may I have..." rather than the Americanised "Can I get...". Awful.
And in and upcoming report, we discuss the demise of the far less clunky sounding word "forthcoming" to describe an imminent event.
Or "fetch up" instead of the word "arrive". Aaaargghhh.
Further reports show that large sections of UK public fear change more than anything else and have been conned into believing mastering out-moded grammar anmd spelling somehow makes them better than the common herd and while they whinge about the death of the semi-colon the class obsessed parochical status quo remains in place.
Are we sure "ahead of" isn't old English usage back over here after its travels across the pond. Like many so called "Americanisms"
Is this for real, (sorry), 'true'? In that instance, (sorry), 'case' I would like to 'protest' this. Or do I mean 'protest against'? Beats me, (sorry) 'I don't know'. I thought I was English but maybe, (sorry) 'perhaps' I'm not. I know I was raised, (sorry), 'brought up' here.
I blame David Frost for starting all this transat-talk. But you can tell I'm English by the number of times I've said sorry, though I know in my heart it can never be enough.
This is duffing of the highest order.
Clearly I'm not as sensitive as others. Neologisms don't bother me if they are lucid and useful. I do have friends who have conniptions when anyone says 'train station' instead of 'railway station'. in which case the newer term actually seems like an improvement to me, but 'ahead of' seems inoffensive.
That said, make sure you get your 'who' and 'whom' correct if you're writing to me, and don't even get me started on 'less' being used in place of 'fewer'.
I don't know about journalism, but I know I'm going to through my TV through the window the first time a hear a new presenter in the UK miss out the word 'on' before giving the day of the week.
"And in London, Tuesday, . . ." - where has the 'on' gone?
Gotten gets me.
Someone on Radio 4 discribed that a suspect in a case who had been arrested, had later been de-arrested.
backtoblack
'Gotten' is the older form, now mostly died out in Blighty. Lots of Americanisms are like that - fall for autumn - it's actually us who adopt new-fangled words, and then resist the old ones when they make their way back across the Atlantic.
iriki: I didn't know that about 'gotten'. Slightly off topic, but that reminds me of my own indignant reaction when a local pub changed its name from "The Cricketers" to "The Cyclists' Rest". "Bloody ridiculous!" I thought, only to discover that The Cyclists' Rest was the original name of the boozer. Still don't like "gotten" though.
http://www.pbs.org/speak/ahead/change/ruining/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/yourvoice/language_change.shtml#A
Sorry, I can't make them into fancy hotlinks, it's a cut 'n' paste job. Thought you might find them interesting.
I don't think these things are Americanisms, but more slick corporate speak invading all areas of life. In my job as a secretary, I frequently have to change letters given to me so they say "me" and not "myself".
However, I do get annoyed when newsreaders tell me, for example, that it's April the 9th. It's not. It's the 9th of April.
I too have been impacted by this phenomenon.
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