newsobserver.com blogs -- grammar

Word of the year lists

Pam_Nelson — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 10:55:57 -0500

I am a fan of word of the year lists. They give us insight into our times. They also give us grist for the blog mill.

The American Dialect Society has chosen "tweet" as the 2009 word of the year, and "google" as the word of the decade. The society is made up of linguists, grammarians, writers, editors and others, and this is the 20th year it has issued its list. Here is what Grant Barrett, chairman of the new words committee, said in the news release about the society's choices: "Both words are, in the end, products of the Information Age, where every person has the ability to satisfy curiosity and to broadcast to a select following, both via the Internet."

Indeed, "Tweet" and "Google" do tell the story of the past year and the past decade. We increasingly live our lives online. I send messages via e-mail, search for answers with Google or Bing, have a blog, maintain a profile on Facebook, post on Twitter and keep up with my far-flung friends and family mostly through the Internet. Via a photo-sharing Web site, I am even watching my newborn grandniece grow. I am happy about all this online activity, but I realize that some people still don't get it and some others don't like it. They are either frightened by the Internet or just put off by its pervasiveness. And some of us who make our living in the print media wish our bosses would hurry up and figure out how to make some money off this Internet thing.

The American Dialect Society's list also features the most creative word of the year: "Dracula sneeze" for the practice of using the crook of our elbows to cover our faces when we don't have a tissue or handkerchief handy. The society chose "hike the Appalachian Trail" as the euphemism of the year.

Download the PDF of the American Dialect Society's whole list here. (Added: You might also be interested in John McIntyre's blog post about the society's meeting and Ben Zimmer's post at Visual Thesaurus.)

Along with the word of the year list comes a list of banished words from a group at Lake Superior State University. Some of my colleagues at The N&O are dismissive of this list, but you just have to admire these folks for getting a fairly obscure Michigan school in the news once a year. The list includes "tweet" and "friend" as verb -- both terms that appear on other words of the year lists, although it's actually a form of "friend" that is on the New Oxford American Dictionary list: "unfriend."

No one should take the banished words list seriously. We have no need to stop using "sexting" (although the practice is unsavory among teenagers -- gracious!), "shovel-ready" or any Obama-prefix words. I would rather not read "teachable moment" again, except in irony, but that's just me.

My own choice for word of the year is "layoff." It is a word that dominated my work life and intruded into my personal life in 2009. I could put it on my banished words list, but I doubt that I have seen the last of it.

Word watch: Dilemma

Pam_Nelson — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:57:58 -0500

A colleague pointed out some loose usage in this passage:

Your house may soon be overrun by holiday weekend houseguests. As the host, you'll have a dilemma: what to feed them.

A dilemma is a choice between two bad alternatives, many usage experts say. To illustrate, I will refer to a scene from a favorite movie. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid faced a dilemma when they were trapped on that rocky ledge above a river as they were being chased by the posse: Stay and be killed or captured -- or jump and drown or die in the fall. In other words, if you are presented with a true dilemma, you might be tempted to yell what the Kid did after you make the choice.

Bryan A. Garner writes that dilemma should not be used for plight or predicament. Or in the case of a host with guests to feed, a puzzle, a problem or even a challenge.

Of course, the fact that dilemma appears so often as a synonym for a tough choice, even between good alternatives (french toast or pancakes, sausage and egg casserole or ham and cheese omelets -- yum!), indicates that the usage has found its way into the acceptable range for plenty of writers, editors and readers. Indeed, the editors of "Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage" cite several uses of dilemma when no alternatives are expressed and conclude: "Your use of the word in the sense of problem or predicament should not be a concern."

But, as I often counsel in this blog, a word choice that usage experts widely disapprove of will strike many careful readers as wrong, so it's best to avoid it. Here is what R.W. Burchfield writes about dilemma in "Fowler's Modern English Usage":

"There are many contexts in the past and at the present time when the line between the strict use and the 'loose' one is very fine, and even nonexistent. But when words like problem and difficult choice fit neatly into such contexts they should be used in preference to 'dilemma.'"

Book review: "I Laid an Egg on Aunt Ruth's Head"

Pam_Nelson — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:46:55 -0500

Joel Schnoor, who lives in Apex, sent me a copy of his book, "I Laid an Egg on Aunt Ruth's Head." (Author House, 2009) Here is how he describes the book:

"The book contains 43 short stories featuring a tough, lovable Aunt Ruth character who struggles with proper English usage. Her nauseating nephew helps her get on the right track. Some stories are heavy on the grammar and some are light, but they all are intended to be funny and to leave the audience chuckling."

Indeed, the stories are humorous in a gentle and G-rated way, and they do teach grammar and usage. The title comes from the first story, which introduces Aunt Ruth and her nephew and deals with lay and lie. The other titles give clues to the grammar and usage principles covered: "As Aunt Ruth Likes It," "Aunt Ruth Comprises Surprises," "The Old Lady is All Right."

Schnoor has made his book helpful and easy to use. He includes a handy appendix titled "Common Rough Spots in English" with the title and the number of the story that deals with the rough spot. The book also has an index of the grammar points handled in each of the stories. So if you have a preteen who doesn't understand "its" and "it's," you can zero in on the story you need to show him or her the difference.

I am not a fan of cute grammar books that seem designed to put down those who make common mistakes. Schnoor's book is definitely not that. He is a kind, considerate, funny teacher who wants only for his students to improve, not to feel bad because of all they don't know.

This book would entertain children and adults, as Schnoor pointed out in his message to me. His news release says the book is for middle school to adult. I think some of the stories would work with smart children as young as 8, and that the book probably works best with children up to age 13 or so. That is a very valuable audience to capture. If we can teach them while they're young, we won't see as many college freshmen who have to go to remedial grammar classes.

The book is available online at Author House, where you can buy it as a hardcover, paperback or electronic book, and at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Schnoor has a companion Web site, www.AuntRuthGrammar.com, which has Aunt Ruth Grammar Drills and Exercises. That should make the book even more useful, as he hopes.

Book review: "I Laid an Egg on Aunt Ruth's Head"

Pam_Nelson — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:46:55 -0500

Joel Schnoor, who lives in Apex, sent me a copy of his book, "I Laid an Egg on Aunt Ruth's Head." (Author House, 2009) Here is how he describes the book:

"The book contains 43 short stories featuring a tough, lovable Aunt Ruth character who struggles with proper English usage. Her nauseating nephew helps her get on the right track. Some stories are heavy on the grammar and some are light, but they all are intended to be funny and to leave the audience chuckling."

The book is available online at Author House, where you can buy it as a hardcover, paperback or electronic book, and at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Schnoor has a companion Web site, www.AuntRuthGrammar.com, which has Aunt Ruth Grammar Drills and Exercises. That should make the book even more useful, as he hopes.

Every time a cliche rings, a copy editor gets her wings

Pam_Nelson — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:46:54 -0500

An editor urged copy editors at The News & Observer to avoid seasonal cliches such as "'Tis the season" and "Deck the halls." I am all in favor of writers coming up with interesting new turns of phrase, but sometimes one man's cliche is another man's cultural lifebuoy.

John McIntyre's list is the source for my colleague's self-declared "war on Christmas." McIntyre is right about every one of those seasonal phrases. I myself would like for everyone to eschew "'Tis the season," but I don't like blanket bans on words and phrases. I once worked for an editor who never let us headline writer use "set" in a headline, as in "Board sets election date." It was a ridiculous rule, and as soon as I was out from under that editor's thumb, I used "set" every chance I got.

Beyond my natural inclination to rebel against a word ban, I see value in using phrases that are familiar to our readers. True, most of our readers nowadays don't know the reference to "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus," and that's fine, too. But we can still evoke the past with our literary and cultural references. There is nothing wrong with alluding to Dickens or Gene Autry or C.S. Lewis. We are writing for a newspaper; it's a mass ~~media~~ medium* (for the time being anyway), and we can share our common heritage. Just think how hard it is not to cry when the folks in Bedford Falls gather to sing "Auld Lang Syne" at the end of "It's a Wonderful Life."

Of course, the culture is shifting. We baby boomers who make allusions to the Beatles will give way to the Millennials who refer to Green Day or Kanye or Ghostface Killah. If the phrase fits, it will resonate with the readers it means to reach. By the way, I want some writer to work "Olive the Other Reindeer" or "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace" into a story this season.

What do you think of seasonal cliches? Are you sick of "'Tis the season," "The Grinch" and "Bah, Humbug"? Please comment here or send me an e-mail message, pam.nelson@newsobserver.com. I'll post the messages here.

* I discovered this error when I reread my post some time later.

A phrase that might sound dirty but isn't

Pam_Nelson — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 13:24:04 -0500

One copy editor duty is to keep vulgar words and phrases out of the newspaper -- or at least, to alert a decision-making editor about an off-color reference, even in a direct quote.
Last week, I edited a story that included a quote with the phrase "balls to the wall." I thought that reference that might not be proper for the newspaper. I looked it up.
It turns out that "balls to the wall," which means an all-out, full-speed-ahead effort, does not have anything to do with male anatomy. Instead, it comes from pilots, according to several sources.
From WordOrigins.org.

"The phrase balls to the wall, meaning an all-out effort, comes from the world of aviation. On an airplane, the handles controlling the throttle and the fuel mixture are often topped with ball-shaped grips, referred to by pilots as (what else?) balls. Pushing the balls forward, close to the front wall of the cockpit increases the amount of fuel going to the engines and results in the highest possible speed."

Here is a short piece about the phrase from Slate. The IdiomSite has two possible origins for the phrase. Even the Urban Dictionary says the phrase isn't a vulgar reference.

I was prepared for an editor's or a reader's question about the phrase. I haven't heard from anyone yet. My theory is that the readership for that story, which was about a rock band, wouldn't find anything offensive in the phrase.

Word of the year: Unfriend

Pam_Nelson — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:05:03 -0500

Oxford University Press, publisher of the New Oxford American Dictionary, has chosen "unfriend" as the word of the year for 2009. Here is the definition, according to the OUP blog:

unfriend – verb – To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.

Of course, now the debate has begun over whether the term should be "unfriend" or "defriend. I vote for "defriend." Both prefixes, un- and de-, mean to reverse an action, but de- also carries the connotation of down, as in decline. If you strip someone of friend status, you are degrading his or her role. (I enjoy overthinking prefixes.)

Other words that the dictionary people considered are more interesting. Here are two of my favorites.

intexticated – distracted because texting on a cellphone while driving a vehicle

funemployment – taking advantage of one’s newly unemployed status to have fun or pursue other interests

Care to add your favorites?

Copy editors will think this is funny

Pam_Nelson — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:57:53 -0500

We used to have a saying on the copy desk: Don't follow the stylebook out the window. In other words, common sense should govern which style rules you enforce.

The Associated Press Stylebook is the guide we use for deciding how to handle some usage matters. We follow it -- mostly. Some of us love it, and some of us hate it. Some of us see it as a blunt instrument we can use to subdue crazed writers. And some folks see it as a rich source for parody. Those are the people behind the Fake AP Stylebook on Twitter. Warning: They use words that are decidedly not in the AP Stylebook but which can be heard from time to time in certain workplaces.

Copy editors will think this is funny

Pam_Nelson — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:57:53 -0500

We used to have a saying on the copy desk: Don't follow the stylebook out the window. In other words, common sense should govern which style rules you enforce.

Word search: How a copy editor thinks

Pam_Nelson — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:38:04 -0500

We work very fast these days with diminished resources, and sometimes my word nerd proclivities have to wait until I am off deadline. Lucky for me, I have shelves filled with dictionaries and usage books at home. I can indulge my need to know more about English when I am not on deadline.

I was editing a book review Monday that had this sentence in it.

In the end, however, one cannot escape the feeling that much of this is irrelevant – at least in so far as the historical importance of Forrest is concerned.

My first impulse was to change "in so far as" to "insofar as," but, as any copy editor will tell you, first impulses must be questioned and checked. So I turned to the dictionary (the hardcover one that sits, often open, on my work desk at all times) and found that my impulse was right: Webster's New World College Dictionary renders the word as "insofar." I changed it in the review and moved on.

Later, though, I wondered about "insofar." Is it always rendered as one word? Do all authorities agree on that? I turned to the books and a CD-ROM that sit on my shelves at home.

The Associated Press Stylebook and the New York Times Manual of Style and Usage have entries for "insofar as" without any explanation. Other American English dictionaries -- Random House and Merriam-Webster -- list "insofar." But the Oxford English Dictionary does not.

I turned to "Fowler's Modern English Usage." R.W. Burchfield writes the term as "in so far as," citing the OED, but notes that many sources make it "insofar as." He calls the term a "complex subordinator." In the sentence that set me off on this research, the term introduces a subordinate clause "the historical important of Forrest is concerned." It means "to the extent that."

Of course, Fowler's and "Garner's Modern American Usage" note that the term is wordy and perhaps shouldn't be used at all. Bryan Garner suggests that "as far as" can be substituted in some cases, and that would work in the sentence I was editing. I like "insofar," though, and will leave it as it is. We'll see how it comes out when the Read pages for Sunday's Arts & Living section are published. Another editor might have a different idea.

The plain language of death

Pam_Nelson — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:43:37 -0500

I wrote a post a few years ago about the language of death. As a regular reader of the paid obituaries in our newspaper, I was fascinated with the many ways that survivors and funeral homes found to refer to death. I concluded that in these short summations of a person's life, the terms such as "called home," "went to his (or her) heavenly reward" and "passed away" could be comforting to the loved ones of the person who died.

But I am a journalist and I had long believed that the best way to describe a death was with the plain language: A person died. I believed that euphemisms are unnecessary and even disrespectful to the human life that was ended.

This theory of language took on personal significance when my son, Jake, died on Aug. 30. He was about a month shy of his 21st birthday, and his death of complications after intestinal surgery was shocking and unexpected. He was our only child.

When Jake died, my husband and I needed to call family members, friends and colleagues to tell them. I was grief-stricken, but I was determined not to say that Jake had "passed away." I wanted to be clear and direct. I wanted to tell the plain truth. The odd thing is that at the moment Jake died, it seemed to me that he did "pass away." At that moment in the hospital room in the wee hours, I called to him, "Jake, come back." And, indeed, the doctors and the nurses tried to get him to come back. We all were trying to keep him from passing out of this life to whatever comes after this. He did not come back. He was gone. He died.

So, even though my voice cracked and my heart broke every time I said it in the days after Jake died, I knew I had to let the full force of the words come out. I had to tell people that my beloved, sweet, smart son had died. I owed it to Jake to be clear and direct. The truth was awful, devastating and final. My words had to be equal to the task.

Book review: "My Dog Bites the English Teacher"

Pam_Nelson — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:00:52 -0400

Marian Anders tells the truth when she writes, "Unless you want to be an English teacher, you only need to know the grammar necessary to write correctly -- for school, work and your personal life." That is the guiding principle of Anders' book, "My Dog Bites the English Teacher: Practical Grammar Made Quick and Easy" (Aviary Publishers, available in bookstores and online at www.aviarypublishers.com).

Anders, who lives in the Triangle and has taught English at St. Augustine's College, aims to help students overcome common writing problems with step-by-step lessons and exercises. She emphasizes a practical approach, teaching what everyone needs to know to write correct sentences.

She starts with an explanation of verbs and subjects. Her "time change" tip for helping students identify verbs is useful. That is, add a time element such as yesterday (past), every day (present) or tomorrow (future) to a sentence and notice which word changes. That word is the verb. The title sentence, illustrated on the cover with the image of an English (of course!) bulldog, comes into play during the explanation of the "time change" tip.

Then Anders works through more difficult topics such as phrases and clauses, commas, and case and agreement. She has helpful exercises with an answer key in the back of the book. I thought her explanation of essential and nonessential material -- a concept I had trouble with as a student -- was particularly effective.

Those who read the whole book will find a chapter titled "Traditional Grammar: Not for the Faint of Heart," which explains, among other things, verbals, relative clauses, and transitive and intransitive verbs. Anders briskly handles these topics; she doesn't beat a dead horse.

The organization of Anders' book is its most useful feature. She has included cross-references within the early chapters to more detailed explanations in later ones. As she told me when I talked briefly to her, the book is designed to be used in progressive but discrete chunks. If a student doesn't need to go beyond, say, subject-verb agreement to the chapter on "Powerful Writing," which covers misplaced and dangling modifiers and active and passive voice, the student can stop.

"My Dog Bites the English Teacher" could be used as a supplement to a composition course or as a self-study tool, but I can certainly see its being used as the main grammar teaching text for a high school class. At $14.95 it would be much less expensive than many textbooks and probably just as effective if used with daily writing practice.

To read more about the book or the author, go to www.aviarypublishers.com.

Book review: "My Dog Bites the English Teacher"

Pam_Nelson — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:00:52 -0400

To read more about the book or the author, go to www.aviarypublishers.com.

Word watch: town hall meeting

Pam_Nelson — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 07:33:00 -0400

A reader has an interesting point to make about a phrase that is all over the news these days:

"It is sad that Kilpatrick has given up writing his columns on usage. If he were still writing, I am certain that he would by now have issued one of his 'injunctions' against the currently sickeningly popular cliche 'town hall meeting.' If it ain't held in a bonafide town hall, call it a community meeting or a high school gym meeting or whatever it is."

Of course these meetings on health care and health-care insurance are not in actual town halls, but they are like meetings traditionally held in small towns, especially in New England, to allow residents to express their opinions directly to elected officials. A Wikipedia article actually draws a distinction between town meetings, where votes are taken to decide how a town should be governed, and town hall meetings, which are merely for gathering opinions and airing of viewpoints. (This Commonwealth of Massachusetts site explains town meetings and their rules, including guidelines on how to speak in debate without attacking another speaker personally.)

A Fox News piece examines the current town hall meeting concept, noting that the forums often seem less about gathering opinions from the public and more about elected officials or candidates presenting their own stands. During the 2008 campaign, both presidential candidates used town hall meetings to talk to and at the voters.

Perhaps we in the news media are too quick to reach for a cliche or to adopt the terminology that newsmakers themselves use. But consider the word "forum." It comes from the actual place where ancient Romans gathered to discuss public matters, but it now means any public discussion. That's how words enter our language. We turn a literal phrase into a figurative one. Perhaps we can say that town hall meeting no longer needs to be taken literally.

Punctuation mystery: Why a comma?

Pam_Nelson — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:45:08 -0400

Staff photojournalist Shawn Rocco and staff writer Martha Quillin reported this week on Cary homeowner David Bowden's very large message to the town of Cary. You can see Rocco's photo below. The ACLU says the town would be abridging free speech if it used an ordinance to get the sign removed. But, as one of my colleagues points out, the big question for those of us with a copy editor/grammar geek mentality is: Why does the message end with a comma? Your thoughts are welcome.

Punctuation mystery: Why a comma?

Pam_Nelson — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:45:08 -0400

Mechanics: Plural possessive of a family name

Pam_Nelson — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:44:43 -0400

The New York Times report of a well-known British conductor's assisted suicide alongside his wife has a passage that illustrates a rare and tricky challenge.

The conductor was Sir Edward Downes, and his wife was Lady Downes. The story never uses the expected plural of Downes: Downeses. (The rule is for a noun ending in -s, add -es to make the plural form.) The story seems to avoid the plural, referring to the Downes family.

However, John F. Burns' account contains this passage:

But British news reports about the Downes’ suicides noted one factor that appeared to set the case apart from others involving the Dignitas clinic: Sir Edward appeared not to have been terminally ill. There have been at least three other cases similar to the Downes’, in which a spouse who was not terminally ill chose to die with the other.

Because Burns is referring to both Downeses, it seems that the plural possessive would be Downeses', instead of Downes'. If I were editing the story, I'd probably want to change Downes' to Downeses' in that passage.

The Associated Press Stylebook says to add -es to form the plural of a proper name ending in -s, and says to add an apostrophe to form the possessive, although it doesn't give an example like Downeses. The Chicago Manual of Style does give an example that seems to apply: the Williamses' house. Bryan A. Garner in "Garner's Modern American Usage" and the Economist's Style Guide give an example, too: Joneses'. And, most important to this particular story, The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage gives Joneses' as an example.

But the Guide to Grammar and Writing has this:

When we want the possessive of a pluralized family name, we pluralize first and then simply make the name possessive with the use of an apostrophe. Thus, we might travel in the Smiths' car when we visit the Joneses (members of the Jones family) at the Joneses' home. When the last name ends in a hard "z" sound, we usually don't add an "s" or the "-es" and simply add the apostrophe: "the Chambers' new baby."

So does that apply in this case? It would seem that Joneses and Downeses should be treated the same way. I don't think the "z" rule applies.

Besides, I would probably still use Chamberses' to indicate something that belongs to the Chambers family. This "z" rule stuff seems to lead us down a twisted path of inconsistency.

Word news: Don't take a staycation with your frenemy

Pam_Nelson — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 08:13:21 -0400

The editors of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary have added about 100 words for the 2009 edition and to the dictionary online. Among them are staycation, a vacation spent at home or nearby, and frenemy, a person who pretends to be a friend but who is actually an enemy. Both of these are portmanteaus, words that blend parts of other words to create a new term. As John Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster Inc., told Reuters, these new words meet a need and, as in the case of staycation, can quickly become part of our everyday language. Read the Associated Press story about the new words here.

The recession has helped create several new terms, as Wallet Pop points out. A transumer is a consumer who is always in transition; nowadays, that term describes people who rent rather than buy things they need. The Recession Wire defines a few new terms related to the recession, including bleakonomics, "the dire forecasts, depressing warnings, and otherwise gloomy chatter that’s still brewing beneath the recent round of cheerier economic predictions."

Decades from now, people will be able to see what was on our minds when they read the dictionary updates and examine the vocabulary of our age.

Words we like: antebellum

Pam_Nelson — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:43:20 -0400

The latest installment in The N&O's Old North State series, Warrenton fights to regain lost glory, allows us a chance to use the lovely sounding word, antebellum. Staff writer Kristin Collins' story refers to the town's "antebellum architecture" and to its heyday before the Civil War.

The word antebellum comes from Latin. The prefix ante means "before," as in antecedent or "in front of," as in anteroom. The second part, bellum, means "war." It's also a root word for bellicose and belligerent.

Antebellum refers most often to the time before the American Civil War, although the Oxford English Dictionary notes that it can refer to the times before the 20th century's two world wars.

I also like antediluvian, referring to the time before the biblical flood. It can be used to describe someone or something that is antiquated or old-fashioned. If you click on the links for the words to go to Dictionary.com, you can hear the pronunciations of antebellum and antediluvian.

Modify your misplaced and dangling modifiers

Pam_Nelson — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:46:18 -0400

Misplaced and dangling modifiers can sneak in when writers and editors aren't paying attention. A couple of readers found such constructions in recent N&O pieces, and I found a couple in one article I was reading on another Web site. Those examples provide the makings for this post.

A modifier is a word, a phrase or a clause that changes the meaning of other words by adding description or precision. Modifiers can act as adjectives or as adverbs.

A modifier can be said to be misplaced if it is too far from the word it is meant to modify. A dangling modifier is one that doesn't seem to apply to anything in the sentence. Dangling modifiers can make our sentences unintentionally humorous, as in this one cited in an Internet discussion: Covered with melted cheese, we ate the pizza.

Modifiers can also be squinting, appearing to modify two words at once. The Associated Press Stylebook has a doozy of an example in its entry: Those who lie often are found out.

A reader called my attention to a misplaced modifier in a recent N&O report: McCance was found shot to death by her family Monday afternoon at her southern Wake County home. The family did the finding. Here is a suggested edit: Her family found McCance shot to death Monday afternoon at her southern Wake County home.

A dangler shows up in another recent story: Nearly six months after taking office, Gov. Beverly Perdue's political honeymoon is over. The beginning phrase was meant to describe Gov. Perdue herself, but the subject of the sentence is honeymoon. The first phrase is dangling because it doesn't actually modify the subject of the sentence. A textbook titled "Grammar and Composition" (Prentice-Hall, 1982) reminds us that you can usually fix a dangling modifier by adding the missing word to the main clause or by rephrasing the modifier to include the missing word. Using that advice, I suggest an edit for the sentence above: Nearly six months after Gov. Beverly Perdue took office, her political honeymoon is over.

The pair of danglers I encountered appeared in an article at www.playsavvy.com and linked on the AOL home page. The story was about a recent case of a teenager convicted of killing his mother and injuring his father because his parents tried to restrict his video-game playing.

The article opened with: As a parent, the so-called "Halo killer" may have you nervously watching your kids as they jab at their joysticks. The "Halo killer" is not a parent. In an effort to make this article relevant to the audience, the writer leaves his opening phrase dangling. A reworking is in order: If you are a parent, hearing about the "Halo killer" may have you nervously watching your kids as they jab at their joysticks. (I also excised so-called because the quotation marks do the job.)

Later in the same story came another dangler. I underlined the offending modifier:

Another instance of a teenager flying into a rage after being deprived of a video game took place in 2006, in Arkansas. After grounding her grandson, Allen Gann, from playing games the night before for not doing his chores, he sat down and played a full day's worth, including Resident Evil, Smackdown vs. Raw and Midnight Club 2.

We are left to presume that the first phrase is meant to refer to the teen's grandmother. The way it is written, though, the modifier has nothing to modify in the sentence. It's dangling. By the way, the piece never identifies the grandmother by name. She just gets pronouns. Her name, which I found in another report of the incident, would be a good way to fix the dangler. After Georgia Gann grounded her grandson, Allen Gann ...

That article continued its confusing way with a fuzzy pronoun reference in the next paragraph. When she reminded him of the punishment, the 17-year-old flew into a rage, choking her and later, throwing a hammer at a state trooper. We readers can probably figure out that the "she" is the grandmother, but not only has the grandmother not been identified, that sentence's structure leaves it unclear who is the "she" and who is the "him."

Identifying and repairing misplaced, dangling and squinting modifiers can be a chore, but by doing that, writers and editors can go far toward making the readers' job of understanding much easier.

Modify your misplaced and dangling modifiers

Pam_Nelson — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:46:18 -0400

A modifier is a word, a phrase or a clause that changes the meaning of other words by adding description or precision. Modifiers can act as adjectives or as adverbs.

Modifiers can also be squinting, appearing to modify two words at once. The Associated Press Stylebook has a doozy of an example in its entry: Those who lie often are found out.

Later in the same story came another dangler. I underlined the offending modifier:

Another instance of a teenager flying into a rage after being deprived of a video game took place in 2006, in Arkansas. After grounding her grandson, Allen Gann, from playing games the night before for not doing his chores, he sat down and played a full day's worth, including Resident Evil, Smackdown vs. Raw and Midnight Club 2.

Identifying and repairing misplaced, dangling and squinting modifiers can be a chore, but by doing that, writers and editors can go far toward making the readers' job of understanding much easier.

Say it like a native: place name pronunciation

Pam_Nelson — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 12:16:21 -0400

Staff writer Martha Quillin's story about the pronunciation of Lejeune reminds me of the peculiarities of place name pronunciation. Even if the name of the family was pronounced one way, the name of the Marine base has come to be pronounced another way.

Broadcast journalists tended to pronounce the name of the trail where Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina was reported to be hiking as Appa-LAY-chian. Most of us here in North Carolina rhyme that third syllable with "latch." Both pronunciations are recognized, but it appears the more people use the short a pronunciation. Merriam-Webster's online pronunciation guide does. Another page cites a well-known history of the region, which holds that the people who live in the Appalachian region can tell someone who comes from the outside if that person says Appa-LAY-chian instead of App-LATCH-an. Up north, Appa-LAY-chian dominates.

In the Catawba County community where I grew up, we had our own version of a great vowel debate. A nearby church and its surrounding community are known as Plat-TAW, even though it is spelled Plateau. The residents know that people aren't from around there if they pronounce it Plat-OH. Of course, those outsiders probably view the locals as hicks or foothillbillies. It is a plateau, though, and from the top of Hog Hill, another name for the community, you can see far and wide.

If you are from Lumberton, you know that you live in RAH-beson County, not ROH-beson. If you live in eastern Wake County, you know it's Wen-DELL. If you hang out in southern Wake or northern Harnett, you know Chalybeate (Ka-LIB-e-ate) Springs. If you're from Eastern North Carolina, you know how to say Ber-TEE County. And if you are from Beaufort, N.C., you are from BO-fert, not Byoo-fert. That's in South Carolina.

If you want to hear some expert pronunciation of North Carolina place names, check out Talk Like a Tar Heel at the UNC Libraries site. I could listen to the pronunciation of Cerro Gordo, Chicamacomico, Potecasi and Tuckasegee over and
over.

What the Grammar Guide is about

Pam_Nelson — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:35:14 -0400

A slogan I've seen from time to time comes to mind today: Christians aren't perfect -- just forgiven. Sometimes I'd like to post this slogan: Grammar advisers aren't perfect -- just trying very hard.

When I decided to write a blog about grammar, usage and style, I was worried about being perceived as an "expert" or, worse, as a pretender -- someone who aspired to be an expert. That concern still hangs over everything I write. When I make a mistake -- whether it's a typo or some other error -- I am riddled with doubt. Why am I doing this? I'm no expert!

I also worry about being perceived as a pest or a smart aleck, drawing attention to the shortcomings of others just to embarrass them. To be clear and direct, that is not my driving motivation. I wonder if others would see me as hypocrite -- pointing out the mote in my brother's eye while ignoring the beam in my own. I do have readers who will help me on that score, though. Even if it hurts my feelings, I am grateful for those who let me know when I've fallen short. The two-way communication of blogs has made the form popular and useful.

The truth is I enjoy thinking about the structure of our wonderful English language and the way it is used. I have years of experience as a copy editor and have learned from some of the smartest editors. I have overcome my strong prescriptivist roots for the most part, but I am a schoolmarm at heart. I like to teach and to lead others to think more deeply about how they use the language. And, best of all, I can turn to a slew of grammar and usage books written by real experts. I rarely answer a question off the top of my head. I turn to the experts I trust. I ruminate over structure and meaning. Still, even with all this consulting and thinking, I am not always sure of my answer.

Like most other journalists and teachers, I am not perfect -- just trying very hard.

What the Grammar Guide is about

Pam_Nelson — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:35:14 -0400

Like most other journalists and teachers, I am not perfect -- just trying very hard.

Confusing pairs: gel and jell

Pam_Nelson — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:05:43 -0400

When we speak of a group or a team coming together to form a cohesive whole or when we write about an idea becoming a concrete plan of action, we usually use the spelling jell for the verb. However, gel can also mean something has taken definite form.

I like to reserve gel, though, for congeled, as when a gelatin sets. The dessert gelled; the plans jelled.

Follow this link to a longer treatment of gel vs. jell.

Errors in unexpected places

Pam_Nelson — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:07:44 -0400

Sometimes, an error in a public sign surprises me because of the context. I visited Washington late in May and happened to attend an event at the St. Regis, a venerable hotel near the White House. I spotted this sign outside:

I wonder why the sign's writer made the mistake of using 's to make the proper name Astor plural. What is even more surprising is that no one stopped the mistake before the sign went up.

Errors in unexpected places

Pam_Nelson — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:07:44 -0400

I wonder why the sign's writer made the mistake of using 's to make the proper name Astor plural. What is even more surprising is that no one stopped the mistake before the sign went up.

Word watch: reform

Pam_Nelson — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 07:41:21 -0400

Reform has been in the news, both foreign and domestic. In reports about the Iranian election and its violent aftermath, writers have referred to the leading opposition candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi as a reluctant champion of reform. In the debate over health care here at home, advocates and reporters have called the plans for change reform.

Over the years, copy editors at The News & Observer have been encouraged to stamp out reform -- that is, our editors wanted us to be cautious about using the word in the pages of the newspaper. They were focused on the definition of the noun reform:

"the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory" (Random House Webster's College Dictionary)

"amendment of what is defective, vicious, corrupt or depraved." (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary)

Calling a change reform puts a certain value on what has been changed. What politicians refer to as reform might instead merely be a change from one defective practice to another. As "The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage" puts it: reform "suggests not just change but improvement." "The Associated Press Guide to News Writing" points out: "But one group's reform can be another group's calamity." The writers of the Times' style guide suggest "change" and "overhaul" as neutral choices.

In the case of the Iranian election, reform is what Moussavi's supporters want. They want to change what they view as wrong. In the health care debate, advocates want to change what they see as a broken system. The definition of reform has not changed, and journalists have to keep that mind. This is not to say that we shouldn't use the word in reporting what people do and say about the change they are seeking. We just need to be aware of the baggage the word carries.

You may "Twitter" or "Tweet" now

Pam_Nelson — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:26:16 -0400

The Associated Press Stylebook has been updated for 2009. The style guide, used by media organizations throughout the country, has a new entry for Twitter, an online system for distributing messages. The AP says that posting a message on Twitter is to Twitter or to Tweet. That has been the common usage for a few years now, so the AP is catching up.

The stylebook also has a new entry on text messaging/instant messaging that translates common terms and symbols such as BFF (best friend forever) and NSFW (not safe for work). The stylebook accepts text, texting and texted as the verb forms for sending text messages. This probably won't sit well with some noun-to-verb hardliners. The AP still doesn't say anything about friend and Facebook as verbs.

Read the AP's press release for more news about the updated stylebook.

You may "Twitter" or "Tweet" now

Pam_Nelson — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:26:16 -0400

Read the AP's press release for more news about the updated stylebook.

Word choice: Bring and take

Pam_Nelson — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:24:21 -0400

A reader objected to this usage in Monday's paper: Stephen Colbert brings his Comedy Central show to Iraq. Indeed, because Colbert was in the United States to start, he must take his show to Iraq.

I've run across a couple of other instances of bring where I would use take.

Folks attending the John Hope Franklin celebration at Duke Chapel should park either in the Bryan Center parking garage or in lots along Duke University Road near Chapel Drive, where shuttles will bring them to campus. It seems to me that the shuttle start at the parking areas and take the people to campus.

And this:

Bring your kids and your dog to Dog Days of June at Fred G. Bond Metro Park, Field No. 2, 801 High House Rd., Cary, from 9 a.m .to 1 p.m. Saturday. I presume that the parents start at home and take the children and the pets to the park.

As Webster's New World English Grammar Handbook says, "the rule governing the use of these two verbs is quite simple: Use take to indicate direction away from the speaker; use bring to indicate direction toward the speaker." In the instances cited above, though, the speaker is not involved at all. That makes it harder, I suppose, for writers to decide. Still, I think the perspective is important. Where the action starts is the determining factor for me in preferring take.

I've written about bring and take before, and in that post, I cited a very good treatment of bring and take by John McIntyre. He takes on the persnickety among us.

P.S. McIntyre recently was laid off from his job as head of the copy desk at The Baltimore Sun. He has a new blog that I will continue to turn to. If there is such a thing as a star among copy editors, it is John.

Word choice: Bring and take

Pam_Nelson — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:24:21 -0400

I've run across a couple of other instances of bring where I would use take.

Folks attending the John Hope Franklin celebration at Duke Chapel should park either in the Bryan Center parking garage or in lots along Duke University Road near Chapel Drive, where shuttles will bring them to campus. It seems to me that the shuttle start at the parking areas and take the people to campus.

And this:

Bring your kids and your dog to Dog Days of June at Fred G. Bond Metro Park, Field No. 2, 801 High House Rd., Cary, from 9 a.m .to 1 p.m. Saturday. I presume that the parents start at home and take the children and the pets to the park.

I've written about bring and take before, and in that post, I cited a very good treatment of bring and take by John McIntyre. He takes on the persnickety among us.

Punctuation particulars: the long dash

Pam_Nelson — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 07:27:45 -0400

Copy editors can be picky. We like accuracy, clarity and consistency. We like to have a good reason for stepping outside the bounds. A recent message from a colleague that referred to the dash as "trite punctuational hyperbole" seemed harsh and rigid to other colleagues. In fact, when I was first hired at The N&O in 1987, we were told to use dashes sparingly. That seems to have changed in the past 10 years or so. Now, our copy can be sprinkled with dashes.

I decided to do some research on the use of the dash, also known as the em dash ("em" is a printing term that refers to width) or the long dash. I wanted to know the rules of using dashes.

(In this post I am not considering the en dash, which our newspaper rarely uses. I will use two hyphens side by side to represent an em dash in this post.)

First, Strunk & White, as one colleague noted, has this to say about the dash:

"Use a dash to set off an abrupt break or interruption, and to announce a long appositive of summary. A dash is a mark of separation stronger than a colon, and more relaxed than parentheses. Use a dash only when a more common mark of punctuation seems inadequate."

The Capital Community College's Guide to Grammar and Writing site opens a page on dashes with a wonderful quote from the writer-scientist Lewis Thomas:

"The dash is a handy device, informal and essentially playful, telling you that you're about to take off on a different tack but still in some way connected with the present course -- only you have to remember that the dash is there, and either put a second dash at the end of the notion to let the reader know that he's back on course, or else end the sentence, as here, with a period."

The Guide to Grammar and Writing refers to the dash as a "super-comma" and tells students to forgo the dash when a comma will do. That's good advice, but it's subjective. Maybe I think commas will do, but another writer thinks that the break is not strong enough without the dashes.

Dashes do put more emphasis on the words that have been set off. Merriam-Webster's Guide to Punctuation and Style, Second Edition, says that a dash "marks an abrupt change or break in the structure of a sentence." An example: Almost all of us wanted to visit the museum -- Susan wanted to go shopping. I prefer a semicolon in that spot, but someone else could argue that the sentence needs the tension of a long dash -- to indicate exasperation, perhaps.

Dashes often appear these days to link two clauses. I am old-fashioned; I think semicolons (or a comma and a coordinating conjunction) work best to link two independent clauses.

Sometimes, a set of long dashes acts as commas and parentheses would: to insert explanatory or amplifying phrases. Example: We went to the mountains -- mostly Blowing Rock or Boone -- for weekend outings when I was a child. Commas would do in this case, but a writer might choose dashes for emphasis. Another example: We went to the mountains -- I was a reluctant passenger in the backseat -- almost every weekend during the summer. Parentheses would work here. Some writers might consider parentheses too jarring; they want to keep the flow going even while emphasizing the aside.

The Merriam-Webster's punctuation guide also says that a dash can introduce a summary statement after a list. Jobs, health care, infrastructure rebuilding, security -- those are some of the concerns on voters' minds.

A dash can set off a definition. The bank used credit default swaps -- a complex form of insurance that pays if a borrower defaults -- to make its mortgage holdings appear stronger than they were.

I think writers should acquaint themselves with all available punctuation tools. The Associated Press Stylebook has a punctuation guide that mass media writers can refer to. Writers and editors can choose to use the ones that work best. Many writers seem to have forgotten the semicolon, for example, and use dashes to excess. But no tool should be off-limits -- unless your teacher or editor deems them so.

Phrases you don't hear any more

Pam_Nelson — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:46:49 -0400

This morning, the phrase "struck on himself" popped into my head. I realized that I hadn't heard it in ages. It means someone who has an inflated opinion of himself or who is in love with himself. As in, "Earl was the best looking boy in the school, but I thought he was struck on himself."

The Learner's Dictionary's entry on "strike" says the phrase is British informal. I grew up hearing it all the time, though, in Catawba County, North Carolina. Being "struck on" yourself was a bad thing to be, too, in my family.

Dialects: We talk funny everywhere

Pam_Nelson — Sun, 10 May 2009 19:11:50 -0400

I love North Carolina dialects. I have one myself -- western Piedmont. I ran across this nifty site today. Take the North Carolina Dialect Quiz and see if you can distinguish among North Carolina regional dialects. One speaker on the quiz sounds just like my mother, born in 1929 in Hickory.

You can also learn more about why people in parts of North Carolina speak the way they do. The quiz is part of the North Carolina Language and Life Project.

If you want to hear more examples of authentic North Carolina dialect, go to the International Dialects of English Archive. My kinfolks sound like North Carolina #17.

Style guides: 50 years of Strunk and White

Pam_Nelson — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:54:42 -0400

Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style," one of the most famous books about grammar and usage, was published 50 years ago April 16. The slim book has sold more than 10 million copies, according to this Associated Press report. Its influence is wide.

William Strunk Jr., an English professor at Cornell University, published his own book in 1918 as a guide to his students. One student, E.B. White, became a well-regarded writer and revised the book for publication in 1959. The book emphasizes plain, clear and concise writing, and lays down rules such as "omit needless words" and "use the proper case of pronoun." Many college students and journalists have used Strunk and White and have become better writers.

Strunk and White might be the first usage book I read. Editors I worked for in my first years in the newspaper business swore by the little book. Indeed, more than one journalist has told me, "Strunk and White is all you need to know how to write." Perhaps that's true.

Not everyone worships Strunk and White. Read this review in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Geoffrey K. Pullum, a linguistics professor, calls the book "overopinionated and underinformed." He especially goes after the advice on passive voice. Professor Pullum would probably hate this blog, too. (Thanks to my former colleague Will Sutton for pointing out this article.)

A few years ago, illustrator Maira Kallman added her whimsical drawings to Strunk and White. That made the book new again for me. I wrote about it in November 2005.

I still refer to Strunk and White, but being a hardcore grammar and usage book collector, I have other guides on my favorites list. "Garner's Modern American Usage" is more useful for looking up specific usage questions, and the "Gregg Reference Manual" has more thorough information organized well, plus it tells you how to type a business letter. I also rely on "Fowler's Modern English Usage," "The Careful Writer," "Words on Words," "The Writer's Digest Grammar and Desk Reference" and Diana Hacker's "A Writer's Reference."

Still, if I were recommending books for a student or any young writer, I would put Strunk and White high on the list. It's short and contains practical advice. The chapter "Words and Expressions Commonly Misused" should be required reading for any writing or English class from seventh grade through senior year.

Word usage: We just want to celebrate

Pam_Nelson — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:27:05 -0400

A reader sent this note to our editors today:

You make this mistake almost every time a local team wins a title or tournament, so please teach your writers and editors the difference. A celebrant is someone who performs religious rites. A celebrator is someone partying and having a good time. In your article on damage to Franklin Street (page 8A), you refer to partying UNC students as "celebrants." Wrong! They are celebrators!

Indeed, the Associated Press Stylebook makes that distinction. It says, "Use celebrator for someone having a good time." Theodore M. Bernstein's "The Careful Writer" also advises writers to reserve celebrant for "one who participates in a religious rite." Bernstein appears to be the usage expert who brought this issue to everyone's attention, according to the editors of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage.

R.W. Burchfield's "Fowler's Modern English Usage" notes that British English generally reserves celebrant for the religious context, but that American English has used celebrant to mean celebrator since the 1930s. Burchfield doesn't disdain the usage. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage says celebrant and celebrator are both in "reputable use, with 'celebrant' slightly more frequent."

In fact if a writer looking for guidance turned to a dictionary, he or she would find both usages. In the Random House Webster's College Dictionary, the first definition for celebrant is "a participant in any celebration." The second definition refers to the officiating priest in the celebration of the Eucharist. Webster's New World College Dictionary gives the religious rite definition first and the general celebration definition second. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary says a celebrant is "one who celebrates; specifically, the priest officiating at the Eucharist."

Of course, the fact that the AP Stylebook calls for celebrator for the general use trumps all for those of us who follow that style. I like the advice given in the New York Times Manual of Style and Usage: "The distinction is worth preserving." But I can certainly see how smart people could choose to use celebrants for those happy folks on Franklin Street, and I myself didn't stop on that word as I read the paper. I am glad the reader sent the note to remind us that some people still recognize the difference.

Word usage: We just want to celebrate

Pam_Nelson — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:27:05 -0400

A reader sent this note to our editors today:

You make this mistake almost every time a local team wins a title or tournament, so please teach your writers and editors the difference. A celebrant is someone who performs religious rites. A celebrator is someone partying and having a good time. In your article on damage to Franklin Street (page 8A), you refer to partying UNC students as "celebrants." Wrong! They are celebrators!

Words that mean something bad has happened

Pam_Nelson — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:11:26 -0400

Those who report the news often apply labels to terrible or urgent events: tragedy, disaster, crisis, emergency. Sometimes, those labels don't quite fit. We risk overstating the trouble.

Whenever I read or hear the word tragedy, I remember Theodore M. Bernstein's entry in "The Careful Writer." He points out that tragedy in the classic sense means "the downfall of a highly superior person caused at least in part by some fault inherent within him." Bernstein doesn't restrict the word to that use, but he writes, "... it is well to use it only if something great or heroic is involved in the misfortune." The sinking of the Titanic was a tragedy; the ship's builders and crew were trying to do something grand, but their actions led to great misfortune.

A crisis doesn't apply to every dire situation. A crisis is a turning point, a moment that calls for action. In literature, a crisis is "when a conflict reaches its highest tension and must be resolved," according to the American Heritage Dictionary. In medicine, a crisis is "the point in a serious disease at which a decisive change occurs," Random House Webster's College Dictionary says. Our current economic problem is a crisis in that it marks a fundamental shift, a time when decisions that we and our government make will change the course of history.

Disaster applies when an event causes great loss of life, damage or hardship. Hurricane Katrina was a disaster, but reporters probably need to think twice before they use that word for any storm that passes through. Of course, for people whose loved ones have died or whose homes are lost, it could be a disaster or it could be an emergency, a situation that calls for help.

I think most reporters are cautious about three big "C" words -- calamity, cataclysm and catastrophe. Cataclysm, in particular, should probably not come up unless Earth is in jeopardy -- a pending asteroid collision, perhaps. The word comes from the Greek for "flood," making me think of Noah. And catastrophe connotes a very bad ending. It's hard to come back from a catastrophe. Calamity carries the idea of extraordinary misfortune that humans could do little to prevent but one from which we could recover.

As I looked for synonyms for disaster, I ran across fiasco and debacle, labels that we apply to complete failures, usually caused by someone's mistake. Custer's Last Stand was a debacle and a fiasco. It might also have been a tragedy, if you think of Gen. George Custer as a superior human brought down by pride and arrogance.

If we are looking for words to describe our perilous times, we can find plenty. What we hope is that the crisis has occurred that will help us prevent a catastrophe.

Words that mean something bad has happened

Pam_Nelson — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:11:26 -0400

Those who report the news often apply labels to terrible or urgent events: tragedy, disaster, crisis, emergency. Sometimes, those labels don't quite fit. We risk overstating the trouble.

If we are looking for words to describe our perilous times, we can find plenty. What we hope is that the crisis has occurred that will help us prevent a catastrophe.

Back from hiatus: Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Pam_Nelson — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:01:40 -0400

I've been thinking about how people learn English as a second language and studying inflection, including the way we make plurals and possessives. So here is a short quiz on possessives for native speakers as well as for those who have learned or are learning English as a second language.

Click here or on the question mark icon to begin.

Back from hiatus: Triangle Grammar Guide quiz

Pam_Nelson — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:01:40 -0400

Click here or on the question mark icon to begin.

Word watch: detainee and combatant

Pam_Nelson — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:52:14 -0400

A headline from today's newspaper, "U.S. drops 'enemy combatant' label; detainees remain," made me curious about the suffixes in "combatant" and "detainee." The meanings of the suffixes play essential roles in the meanings of the words created.

Both suffixes -ant and -ee are added to verbs to form nouns and to show a relationship. Both -ee and -ant originated in French. A look at their meanings helps us understand our different perceptions between a "combatant" and a "detainee."

The suffix -ee, Random House's Webster's College Dictionary says, denotes "a person who is the object or beneficiary of the act specified by the verb." The dictionary goes on to note that the suffix now also marks the performer of an act, and cites "escapee" and "attendee." A "detainee" is one who is detained. The person becomes the object of a transitive verb.

The suffix -ant, on the other hand, denotes someone who performs a role, and the dictionary cites "applicant" and "contestant." A person who carries a label ending in -ant is an active performer; a person who carries a label ending in -ee is being acted upon -- most of the time. A "detainee" can become an "escapee" and change his status and the way we perceive him.

Bryan A. Garner in his usage guide writes that the sense of -ee is "inherently passive." But "it's an especially active suffix; that is, people are continually creating neologisms with it."Garner goes on to warn writers not to use "escapee" and "attendee," among others, and to use the suffixes -or, -er and -ist for active senses. The Associated Press Stylebook used to recommend "escaped convict" or "fugitive" as alternatives for "escapee," but the entry was dropped in the 2001 edition.

Beyond the suffixes, these words have interesting meanings. A "detainee" is a person held in custody, especially for a political offense or for questioning, Random House's dictionary says. The word's origin is dated 1925-30. A "combatant" is a person engaged in active combat. The dictionary dates it to 1425-75.

Pronouns without gender

Pam_Nelson — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:49:33 -0500

Some have long lamented that English has no gender-neutral pronoun to use in a construction such as this: Everyone needs his or her breakfast. In regular, everyday speech, we might say "their" instead of "his or her." But "everyone" is singular, so the pronoun following it should be singular."His or her" is rather clunky, though. Back in the olden days (my youth) we'd just use "his." But feminism helped us see the problem with that approach.

This pronoun problem is arousing interest among Twitter users, according to this CNN story. Apparently, people are calling for a new gender-neutral pronoun. But, as the story notes, linguists know that language is very resistant to change in pronouns. When you go to the story, take particular note of the quotes from linguist Steven Pinker.

By the way, CNN.com has a collection of stories about language and linguistics.

Pronouns without gender

Pam_Nelson — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:49:33 -0500

By the way, CNN.com has a collection of stories about language and linguistics.

Happy National Grammar Day

Pam_Nelson — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:19:02 -0500

This is National Grammar Day. Perhaps this is a good day to try the Triangle Grammar Guide quizzes, if you haven't. You can find links to them here. Most of them are short. Strictly speaking, they aren't about grammar. Some parts deal with usage or word choice.

Have fun!

Happy National Grammar Day

Pam_Nelson — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:19:02 -0500

Have fun!

Get ready for National Grammar Day

Pam_Nelson — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 11:15:46 -0500

National Grammar Day is Wednesday (March 4).

A day set aside for promoting correct (or, at least, standard) English grammar and usage is the brainchild and pet cause of Martha Brockenbrough, who founded the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG) and writes the SPOGG blog.

National Grammar Day could unleash our pedantic impulses. Indeed, some people might take metaphorical red pens in hand to delete errant apostrophes and chastise those who would say, "Please tell Mary or myself ..." But we don't have to become Miss Thistlebottom, Theodore M. Bernstein's mythical promoter of outmoded and bogus rules of English usage. I would like writers to use lay and lie correctly and to get out a dictionary to be sure of the homonyms they use, but I refuse to get my unmentionables in a bunch over some deviations from the standard, especially in everyday speech.

Baltimore Sun editor and blog writer John McIntyre has some advice and guidance for National Grammar Day. McIntyre reminds us that "English has rules, but not as many as you think."

In this link, you will find a vigorous dissenting opinion about National Grammar Day at Language Log. I agree that the study of English and its structure and variations is much more interesting than the memorization and enforcement of schoolroom grammar.

Still, I like Martha Brockenbrough's idea, and I will celebrate National Grammar Day this year.

Speaking of Martha, her book, "Things That Make Us [Sic]," was published late last year. It's a breezy and humorous work that grew from her own efforts to promote clean, correct, well-punctuated writing. Among other things, she explains regular and irregular verbs with a short history of strong and weak verbs and gives examples of some of the most common problems. Near the end of the book she gives "The Ten False Commandments of the English Language," including "Thou shalt not end a sentence with a preposition."
I found her section on common Latin phrases helpful.

Get ready for National Grammar Day

Pam_Nelson — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 11:15:46 -0500

National Grammar Day is Wednesday (March 4).

Baltimore Sun editor and blog writer John McIntyre has some advice and guidance for National Grammar Day. McIntyre reminds us that "English has rules, but not as many as you think."

Still, I like Martha Brockenbrough's idea, and I will celebrate National Grammar Day this year.

Does this make me a grammarista?

Pam_Nelson — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 08:20:19 -0500

New words pop up all the time. They are a window into our culture and our times. Faith Dwight, the editor of Raleigh's skirt! magazine, sent me a news release she received that used the word recessionista. From the context of the release, I understood that a recessionista is a bargain hunter with style, a woman who wants to remain fashionable and well-groomed for less money in these tough economic times. It derives from fashionista, a word spawned in the 1990s to describe a person who is obsessively interested in fashion.

I checked our online archive and found recessionista in three stories since December. That led me to broaden my search. This Reuters report sent me to the Global Language Monitor, which listed recessionista a top 10 fashion buzz word. The Reuters report also referred to http://therecessionista.blogspot.com/, written by Mary Hall, a fashionista who likes bargains. Word Spy has more references to recessionista. Wiktionary offers a definition and citations.

This 1999 New York Times article about fashionista quotes an editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. Eleanor Rand said, "Etymologically, the suffix '-ista' derives from Spanish and is cognate with the English suffix '-ist,' designating a devotee, adherent or practitioner of the noun to which it is affixed." The terms Sandinista and Peronista come to mind from politics in the Spanish speaking world.

The -ista could be considered a pejorative suffix, one that attaches a negative connotation to the root word, as this Wikipedia article explains. The Times article refers to the negative connotations of fashionista, but I do believe the word has undergone an image makeover. And I think many recessionistas would consider that newer term a compliment.