Verbing
I consider myself pretty open to the development of language. I love etymology, and view the changes with interest. So, I'm not too bothered by changes, which often drive people crazy.
For example the apostrophe, (see Lynne Truss and the Association for the Abolition of the Aberrant Apostrophe) probably he most widely misused piece of punctuation. (Colons and semicolons are probably misused at a higher percentage, but they just aren't as common). Apostrophe misuse gives my sister-in-law a practically physical reaction. A reliable (if secondary) source tells me the possessive apostrophe is a grammarian construction from the early 19th century. He wants it dropped entirely, leaving only the abbreviating one. I find its misuse slightly amusing, and can't ever think of a case where it has hampered my understanding. But each to their own.
I do have a mislike for the grammarian construction, the tendency of those who study the language to try and shape it, for example the censure of the hanging preposition and split infinitive. Both rules brought it to try and fit English grammar to a latinate model.
However, I came recently across a gorgeous example of an old but currently prevalent trend, that of making nouns into verbs,
eg "eye" to "eyeing up",
"burglar" to "burgle"/"burglarise",
"card" to "carded" (e.g. red carded)
"medal" to "medalled".
Medalled being an example where it can actually hamper meaning, out loud, "Daley Thompson medalled in the olympics," has a somewhat more sinister sound. Like there's a great decathlon based conspiracy. This habit has, rather beautifully, been named "verbing", and english is about the only language that does it. I actually quite like verbing cause it pisses off grammarians no end.
But, deviation aside, I heard this one last week:
"The way she was body-languaging into you..."
BODY-LANGUAGING?? They've had to create a new five syllable compund word just to verb it!! and the slightly unnecessary "into you" on the end as well!! Brilliant!
For example the apostrophe, (see Lynne Truss and the Association for the Abolition of the Aberrant Apostrophe) probably he most widely misused piece of punctuation. (Colons and semicolons are probably misused at a higher percentage, but they just aren't as common). Apostrophe misuse gives my sister-in-law a practically physical reaction. A reliable (if secondary) source tells me the possessive apostrophe is a grammarian construction from the early 19th century. He wants it dropped entirely, leaving only the abbreviating one. I find its misuse slightly amusing, and can't ever think of a case where it has hampered my understanding. But each to their own.
I do have a mislike for the grammarian construction, the tendency of those who study the language to try and shape it, for example the censure of the hanging preposition and split infinitive. Both rules brought it to try and fit English grammar to a latinate model.
However, I came recently across a gorgeous example of an old but currently prevalent trend, that of making nouns into verbs,
eg "eye" to "eyeing up",
"burglar" to "burgle"/"burglarise",
"card" to "carded" (e.g. red carded)
"medal" to "medalled".
Medalled being an example where it can actually hamper meaning, out loud, "Daley Thompson medalled in the olympics," has a somewhat more sinister sound. Like there's a great decathlon based conspiracy. This habit has, rather beautifully, been named "verbing", and english is about the only language that does it. I actually quite like verbing cause it pisses off grammarians no end.
But, deviation aside, I heard this one last week:
"The way she was body-languaging into you..."
BODY-LANGUAGING?? They've had to create a new five syllable compund word just to verb it!! and the slightly unnecessary "into you" on the end as well!! Brilliant!