SimplyMaggies

Today I heard a phrase (sadly, not for a first time, I might add) that made me wince. A woman on a show I won’t name here said: “But I gifted them a set in exchange for the gear” Ooh, how I wanted to scream at the TV set again. Sometimes I think that if I could see myself from outside of my body (wouldn’t that be cool?!), I’d most likely think I was totally insane. Because what kind of sane person screams at the TV set on regular basis?

But lets’ go back to the issue at hand. This is an example of yet another common error Americans make while speaking. Sometimes it seems to me that to most people it really doesn’t matter if a word functions only as a noun; they will make it work as a verb and to hell with the language rules. The scary part is that nobody corrects them either for fear of being rude or because they simply don’t know the proper way and don’t want to make fools of themselves.

Even though I’ve been observing these episodes of total disregard for quality of language for a while now, I am still quite baffled at the reasons behind and, of course, the frequency of occurrence. I will solve this puzzle one day!

Anyway, have you even realized why the sentence I quoted is so unacceptable? There are so many reasons I don’t even know where to begin… Firstly, ‘gifted’ means “talented, showing that somebody has great natural talent or intelligence, as in ‘a gifted performance’ and exceptional” (according to Encarta Dictionary). Secondly, ‘a gift’ is either something given to another person, a special talent or an act of giving, e.g. her gift was…

While ‘gifted’ does function as a verb, it is formal and used only in written language, especially journalism (in British English), and in this function it means “to give something to somebody without their having to make any effort to get it”. I did find, however, in one of the American dictionaries, an explanation of ‘gift’ as a transitive verb meaning “to give or concede something to somebody as a gift”. As much as it offends my senses (since I was trained in the British English mainly, although we did have classes on the differences between British and American), I supposed the sentence I quoted earlier is quite acceptable in American. I, for one, am not going to acknowledge this as a valid verb (in the strictly American usage).

So I guess this is how it goes (when it comes to Americans): if you that often enough and if enough people will pick it up, eventually it will make its way to a dictionary and thus the main stream.

As I have mentioned previously, I am quite passionate about language and English in particular. Perhaps it is because of the training in linguistics that I have undergone during my college years. Whatever the reason, I cannot stand when people make fundamental mistakes. It simply gets under my skin… So much so sometimes, that I find myself yelling at the TV set because someone has just made a principal error while speaking.

I think I am past wondering why this happens to take place, I just want it to stop. Take yesterday for example… I was watching “Oprah” (as I do once in a while) and the topic of the show was quite engaging so I was actually paying attention to what was said. You wouldn’t expect intelligent and highly educated people to still make these awful language mistakes but there it was… A guest said she did a certain mental exercise to “better her life”… ‘Better one’s life’?—I ask. Where in the world have you found a rule that lets you use an adjective (and a comparative degree at that!) as a verb?!

Granted, there are some words that have the same form for a verb and a noun, for instance ‘produce’ but this is not the case. There is a perfectly good verb, i.e. ‘to improve’, which means “to make something better in quality or condition or become better” (quoted from Encarta Dictionary) and it should be used in such cases. However, most Americans seem to forget about its existence. And everywhere I turn I hear people say: to better myself or my life etc, which makes me cringe. Why can’t they say “to make my life better” for instance. Now, that would make sense and be grammatically correct. And seriously, it really is not that difficult to remember!

So I wonder if perhaps the educational system in the US is profoundly wrong or at least lacking something since it allows for such alarming slipups. Do me a favor, please, and next time you’re about to say something so incorrect and improper, think before you speak. I want to believe that the correct information is buried somewhere in your brain, it just needs a bit of prompting to come out… Good luck, then.

Linguistics and languages are just two of my passions; English in particular. It may seem a bit out of the ordinary for English is my second language but I’ve come to love it. The more I have learnt about it (and there is still so much more to learn…It’s actually quite exciting), the more I’ve come to appreciate it. And this is precisely the reason why people who use improper language and make basic errors, drive me absolutely nuts!

Sorry to say, Americans seem to dominate this unfortunate category. I often get an impression that either people simply don’t care what kind of language they use or they are not very well educated. Part of me wants to lean towards the former, but the other part realizes that it’s most likely the combination of both. Either way, the effect is the same: too many people speaking improperly for my comfort.

What really ticks me off is when someone (whose English is in general pretty flawed) corrects me on my pronunciation or the use of idioms or other colloquial expressions. Hardly ever are they correct themselves, though. Let me give you an example here. The proper pronunciation of the word ‘herb’ in the English language includes the letter ‘h’, thus the ‘h’ is not silent, contrary to what the popular belief (therefore the pronunciation) is. One thing that gets on your nerves, for instance, is when I read an American book and come across such as this: “an historical event”. This is so incorrect it makes me want to scream: “Where the hell is your editor?!” Anyway, why is it incorrect; you ask? Because nowhere in the rules governing the English language does it state you can put an indefinite article before a consonant! Moreover, using ‘an’ in such a context implies that the ‘h’ in words like ‘history’, ‘historical’ etc. is silent. This, however, is not the case. The ‘h’ in ‘history’ is very much audible!

Well, these are just a few examples of the very basic mistakes Americans make on daily basis, which still makes me ponder the reasons behind such occurrences.