Slaughtering the English Language

Excape/Ecscape is not a word.  What people mean when they say “excape,” is “ESCAPE.”  Any one who remembers his elementary school phonetics, or has taught children to read should know that ES is not pronounced EX.

Supposubly. I don’t know how people can read the correct spelling of the word, “SUPPOSEDLY,” and continue to mispronounce the word.  I understand the problems associated with oral transmission of the language – sloppy annunciation and misinterpretation – but when faced with the correctly-spelled word, and possessing at least a third-grade reading ability, I don’t understand how people can continue mispronouncing the word.

Conversate. I’m not opposed to people saying “conversate” as long as they say it in jest, and their audience understands its use was intentional, but it seems to be used more and more by people who think its a real word – the root word of conversation. -tion is a suffix, added to the end of a word to alter the form of the root word; the “T” in conversation, belongs to the suffix, not the root, which therefore means that the root word lies in the letters occuring before the “T.” The root word of conversation is converse.

There is no such thing as “Premature Stamina.”  Premature means that something grew, occured or arrived earlier than expected.  Stamina refers to the physical or emotional ability to resist fatigue.  You can die prematurely or be born prematurely or arrive at your destination prematurely, but it is not possible to prematurely resist fatigue.  A synonym for “stamina” is “endurance.”  Once cannot endure prematurely, but one can become fatigued sooner than desire.

Assuming there are no physical reasons preventing someone from running a marathon, such as a knee injury, the reason one is unable to successfully run the marathon is because he is not physically fit to do so.  The “cure” for this problem is to improve one’s physical fitness through exercise.

Stupid People. Too Much Government.

We stayed up late enough last night to watch a little bit of news about a movement to make Salvia illegal. It’s not Salvia I want to debate here, but the issue of control.

While I understand the intention behind the demand for governmental interference when people harm themselves by using substances they either know nothing about or intentionally abuse, I refuse to give-up my self-sovereignty… “Consumer Beware,” “Know Thyself,” and “Everything in Moderation” are my preferred cries.

We are each responsible for our own health (and that of our minor children); it is each individual’s responsibility to make informed decisions; and we each have the innate right, not only to make our own nutritional, health, and product choices, but also to treat ourselves. I should not have to visit a doctor to get a prescription for Vitamin C or Oregano, or Yoghurt! How ridiculous is that?!!

Some people are addicted to sugar, and sugar abuse is known to cause diabetes, which can then lead to loss of vision, limb, and life… Should we make sugar illegal?

Just because some (or even most of the) people are ignorant or stupid, doesn’t mean that I should have to surrender my self-sovereignty.

I Love You So Much

Watched Spiderman 3 last night, and heard so many incomplete sentences that I had to rant about them… “I love you so much.” “You look so good.” …These are not complete sentences!!

The word so, is always supposed to be used in conjunction with that, or an implied that. “My joints ached so badly that I had to take some aspirin for the pain.” “I love you so much that my heart could burst.” “You look so good that I am blinded by your beauty.”

No matter where we live in the U.S., we all should have had similar instruction on grammar and sentence structure – and theoretically, all who hold high school diplomas have passed these grammar classes.

I think that the reason many people don’t retain the instruction they received is because proper use of language is neither used nor reinforced by society – it’s not a failing on the schools’ part. When big Hollywood stars and journalists (and presidents, for that matter) use incorrect grammar in their roles, whether intentionally scripted or not, the message received by the public (and particularly the younger, more easily influenced people) is that their use of language is the correct use.

I truly believe that Journalism’s practice of using 6th Grade-level grammar has done a disservice to our society by never requiring readers and viewers to have at least High School Graduate language skills.