Another case of linguistic fingernails-down-the-blackboard
In Episode 1 of Walking with Dinosaurs, "New Blood," at one point the narrator refers to a "huge herd of plateosaurus!" -- a herd which includes maybe 6 individuals at the most. Six animals does most definitely not constitute a huge herd. It's the animals themselves that are huge, which of course they are. Since when did we stop using adjectives to qualify what they qualify and, instead, use them to qualify something else, instead, thus thoroughly screwing up the listener's understanding of the situation? Get it right, idiots . . . Even worse, this was a BBC announcer, who, whether he really is or not, is supposed to be taken as some sort of expert on the whole thing. So you just know that younger listeners are going to imprint on him linguistically. I hate that!
And it happens over and over again (substituting one sort of herding creature for another) in that and the other BBC nature series films. It's got to be a new trend among Brits, and I'm afraid it's going to happen here, too. O tempora, o mores!, and all that good stuff. Yeah, language does evolve, all right, and I'm afaid this is evidence that ours is headed right back to the primordial slime.
And it happens over and over again (substituting one sort of herding creature for another) in that and the other BBC nature series films. It's got to be a new trend among Brits, and I'm afraid it's going to happen here, too. O tempora, o mores!, and all that good stuff. Yeah, language does evolve, all right, and I'm afaid this is evidence that ours is headed right back to the primordial slime.