Language

By Arleen Lorrance

Over time the rules of a language break down and change. This happens for several reasons, one of which is cultural change. Another is the override of rules because of common usage. Another is ignorance.

Cultural change in the current day has completely rewritten pronouns. Those of us who write are happy with one particular change because we had to jump through hoops to make matches in a sentence.

For example, if I was writing about a person but didn’t want to identify if it was a male or female who decided to stay home, I used to have to say “he/she decided to stay home.” I couldn’t say “they” decided to stay home because I was talking about a single person, and “they” would be used if there was more than one. Thanks to trans and binary folks, I can now use “they” if I want to and not have it heard in the plural because it refers to one person, one who doesn’t want to be identified as male or female.

If you grew up many decades ago as I did, you would be befuddled by this new use of “they.” But it is very easy for the new generations because they simply say, “I am dating them and I really like them.” In this way they conceal the gender, and parents would never know if he, if it was a “he,” was dating a girl or a boy because he is dating a “they.”

Parents who try not to be confused would simply let the news flow through and they might respond, “We are so glad you really like them.”

 There are other issues with the use of pronouns. Take the misuse of her as opposed to “she.” I hear this all the time in scripted television shows. A character will say something like “I and her went to the movies.” Of course, it should be “I and she went to the movies.” But some writers today, insist on saying “her” rather than “she” perhaps because they want to get it right and “her” sounds right to them, but they are 100% wrong. They could easily test which word belongs if they used it in a sentence such as “Her went to the movies.” No one would say that. Everyone would say she. Hence, I went to the movies. She went to the movies. I and she went to the movies. (Unless you don’t want to identify the gender these days and you would say, I and they went to the movies. Or “I and them went to the movies.”

Is it driving you crazy yet? There is more.

Take the sentence “He was richer than I.” Too many people say, “He was richer than me.” If they took the sentence apart and reversed it, they would be saying “Me is richer” when they mean to be saying, “I am richer.”

The same applies if the sentence is “He was richer than us.” You would have to say, “Us is richer.” It should be, “He was richer than we.” As in, “He was richer than we (were.)” Otherwise, it would be “He was richer than us (were.)

Same with “Her and I talk on the phone often.” You would never say “Her talks on the phone.” It needs to “She and I” not “Her and I.”

Or “Me and Ben are convinced.” You wouldn’t say “Me is convinced.”

When I don’t know which pronoun to use, I pull out the pronoun in question, put it in a sentence, and I have my answer.

Don’t even get me started on double negatives such as “He don’t have no money.”

 Take the word only. It is used incorrectly much of the time. People will say, It only rains in the Spring. The sentence should be It rains only in the spring. To say It only rains in the Spring means that that is the only thing that happens in the spring, nothing else.

Or, I only go shopping on Wednesday. This would mean I do nothing else on Wednesday. But what I mean to say is that I go shopping only on Wednesday, not any other day of the week.

Or how about the misuse of words altogether. Words such as apropos and appropriate. These are often used instead of each other, incorrectly. Apropos as a preposition means with reference to or concerning. We can’t say “At Christmas it is apropos to give gifts.” We need to say appropriate instead. Apropos as an adjective means very appropriate to a particular situation.

We appropriately use apropos if we are introducing something that is related to or connected with something that has just been said. For example, apropos of what you said yesterday….etc.

Or, how about, he is hiding under a synonym rather than a pseudonym. Or, you will have the document defiantly by Monday, when what is meant is definitely.

Imagine the great affront of hearing a school principal in film dialog saying, we could have went! I hear it all the time. Agggghh! It’s clear he don’t speak no good English.

I could go on, but I think them who reads this gets the idea.