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American Idioms Have Gone Missing

 
 
ehBeth
 
Reply Tue 22 Jun, 2004 06:44 pm
...... article by Ben Yagoda ........

This article really hit me between the eyes (ears?)
Quote:

One of Peter De Vries's comic novels has a character who accumulates Briticisms. As I recall, he orders shrimp cocktail as a "starter," refers to a friend "called" James (instead of "named" -- that's a subtle one), and fills his car with "petrol" for the ride home. Eventually, he winds up in hospital.

De Vries's conceit, delicious as it was, was an exaggeration. Generally a Yank can get away with at most one such locution in his or her active vocabulary, for example the person I know who likes to refer to his time "at university," the university in question being a large land-grant institution. Any more than that and he would be laughed out the door, like the professor who habitually shows up at faculty meetings in a bespoke suit, Turnbull and Asser shirt, and Liberty of London tie, done in a Windsor knot.

Lately, however, the American press has become that professor. What set the ball rolling, I believe, was use of the verb phrase "to go missing" to mean "disappear," as in a person or object that at one moment is available and visible and subsequently is nowhere to be found. "Disappear" doesn't perfectly convey this idea -- it has too much of a Siegfried and Roy, presto-chango connotation -- but, along with its slightly more melodramatic counterpart, "vanish," it had to do the job for a long time. "Go missing" is better, but it was resisted, probably for the very reason that it sounds so British. Along with variants "went missing" and "gone missing," it appeared in The New York Times not at all in 1983, and only twice in 1993.

In 2001, however, the formulation was employed 24 times. The reason was a major national story about a person who went missing: Chandra Levy. And that year was the tipping point. In 2003, the Times had precisely 50 "go missings," and today even writers for USA Today and People use it with a straight face.


I realize that I do have quite a strong negative reaction to writers/speakers who are using these 'Briticisms'. I tend to prefer British spellings to American, but I want the North American words. Anyone else ever have reactions like this?

Quote:
David Letterman recently made fun of Oprah Winfrey's saying that she couldn't appear on his show because she was "on holiday" -- what was wrong, he wondered, with "vacation"? A friend has taken to saying, "I'll ring you" instead of "phone you" or "call you up." From various sources, I have heard repeated uses of "sack" (fire), "row" (argument), and "chat up" (talk to, usually in a flirtatious way). Briticisms all: Together they constitute a cultural equivalent of De Vries's poseur.

I'm afraid I can't resist the inevitable conclusion, so here goes: Briticisms have passed their sell-by date, and the odor (or should I say odour) is getting a bit rank.

Ben Yagoda is a professor of journalism at the University of Delaware and the author, most recently, of The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Writing, published this month by HarperCollins.
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dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Tue 22 Jun, 2004 06:52 pm
And they are all Australianisms too.

You North Americans talk funny.
0 Replies
 
ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Tue 22 Jun, 2004 07:08 pm
Please tell me that you don't say:

...... take a decision .....



That just makes me crazy. I even wrote to the CBC to complain about them using that phrase. Their language czar died about 10 years ago, and things have been horrible there ever since. He would never have allowed 'take a decision'.
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kickycan
 
  1  
Reply Tue 22 Jun, 2004 07:13 pm
This is not exactly the same thing, but my boss, instead of pronouncing the word conTRIBute, says CONtribute, with the "CON" pronounced like the name "Don". This is a British thing too, and it drives me crazy!
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farmerman
 
  1  
Reply Tue 22 Jun, 2004 07:20 pm
Thats why british humor is funnier than nA humor. its beauty resides in precise (sounding0 language. In the uS t, the only people concerned with language precision are lawyers because they have to create two sides to a story in order to collect a fee.


i like "taken to hospital".
When I hear that I always have to say '
"me go visit'
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dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Tue 22 Jun, 2004 07:40 pm
ehBeth wrote:
Please tell me that you don't say:

...... take a decision .....



That just makes me crazy. I even wrote to the CBC to complain about them using that phrase. Their language czar died about 10 years ago, and things have been horrible there ever since. He would never have allowed 'take a decision'.


Er, no - I MAKE a decision.
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hamburger
 
  1  
Reply Tue 22 Jun, 2004 07:46 pm
an expression that canadian politicians of all stripes have started using when they don't know what to say, is : "...in terms of...". we hear it at least a dozen times a day now, and newscasters have started to use it too. crazy, man ! hbg
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joefromchicago
 
  1  
Reply Wed 23 Jun, 2004 08:22 am
Sometimes even the Brits don't understand what they're saying:

http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/paulfitz/spanish/tt1.jpg
"One on't flayrods gone out o' skew on treadle."
0 Replies
 
BoGoWo
 
  1  
Reply Wed 23 Jun, 2004 08:32 am
if we're going to get all 'uppity' about terms, the "call you up", used above; together with "write me", always makes my hand reach for my concealed dagger! The "up" is redundant, not to mention incorrect, and "write me" requires a "to" which shouldn't be 'too' much trouble to add; runner up to the smallest of words!

[personally, 'love', i go out of my way to use Briticisms; there's not such thing as an American idiom, is there? (maybe it's a 'spelling' problem - idiom!]
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BaileyStapleton
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jul, 2004 12:11 am
Hey, Joe, I really hope you do realize that that show is not serious (for if you did, that would be, ahh, strange).

Hurrah for Briticisms! We're making the Americans speak right, one sillable (oops, that should be "syllable". Why am I typing this?) at a time!
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jul, 2004 02:02 am
I would simply note that the use of the verb "to call" by Americans who are substituting it for "to name," is quite common in my experience.

I will also take this opportunity to note that Noah Webster concientiously changed English spellings in order to make the American language distinct. I would further note that although the English still employ "colour" and "centre," they have quietly adopted "magic" rather than "magick," and "music" rather than "musick"--without objection. It seems that Mr. Webster's modification were not entirely without merit, although the English rarely to admit as much.
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ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jul, 2004 02:09 am
I didn't read all the posts through, and therefore will re-evaluate in the morn. I am so pleased to hear of anyone who has heard of Peter DeVries at all.

I don't care so much, myself, on the derivation of one's locution. I just used to think DeVries was sharp.
0 Replies
 
Clary
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jul, 2004 03:36 am
kickycan wrote:
This is not exactly the same thing, but my boss, instead of pronouncing the word conTRIBute, says CONtribute, with the "CON" pronounced like the name "Don". This is a British thing too, and it drives me crazy!

IT SO isn't a British thing!! Unless you count uneducated Brits as the norm - well ok, so they are. ConTRIBute is the first and only pronunciation. Like so many wrong prons, it comes from people reading words they don't say, so they stab at the pron and get it wrong. HARassed used to be normal, but THAT was infected from America.

Like the bit about magick and musick - bring back the K! Although Webster was creating a political language, he did have the laudable intention of simplifying - programme and the once common telegramme look silly now, and undoubtedly humor, color etc. have a perfectly good Latin ancestry. Little did Webster know what misery he was creating for editors and others worldwide - or perhaps we should look at it differently and praise his ability to create employment for so many long after his death!
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Phoenix32890
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jul, 2004 03:56 am
I have found one simple way to deal with British speech, where I find it, mostly on TV or DVD films. I simply adjust the remote control to show the closed captioning or subtitles, just like I would with any foreign language! Laughing :wink:
0 Replies
 
kitchenpete
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jul, 2004 05:22 am
Interested, as always, in these differences.

Nothing much to add for the moment.

KP
0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jul, 2004 05:42 am
Phoenix32890 wrote:
I have found one simple way to deal with British speech...


And we think, they speak English Shocked
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Phoenix32890
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jul, 2004 05:44 am
Quote:
And we think, they speak English


I dunno, Walter. The last few British films that I have watched, the language was somewhat incomprehensible to me. :wink:
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Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jul, 2004 06:08 am
Yes, I know, I hear the same in England - only the other way round.
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kitchenpete
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jul, 2004 06:35 am
Phoenix32890 wrote:
Quote:
And we think, they speak English


I dunno, Walter. The last few British films that I have watched, the language was somewhat incomprehensible to me. :wink:


What have you been watching? Trainspotting was difficult for the English to understand but possible. Most other films are OK for the Brits. I suppose the regional accents are strange.

KP
0 Replies
 
Clary
 
  1  
Reply Mon 5 Jul, 2004 06:41 am
Scots and Geordie pose a problem, and probably Scouse and Welsh and Irish too if you come to think about it.
0 Replies
 
 

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