Devolution toward Simpler

“She graduated college.”

Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Prepositions, Verbs

I often see or hear this and similar sentences.

Problem:
A preposition is missing.

Explanation:
Here’s a simple way to teach someone that “graduated college” is wrong.

Ask him whether he would say this:

  • “She graduated in 2012 college.”

He could reply by changing it to this:

  • “She graduated college in 2012.”

But, to keep “in 2012” before “college” requires the preposition “from”:

  • “She graduated in 2012 from college.”

If he agrees that this is necessary, then ask him to remove “in 2012”, which leaves him with this:

  • “She graduated from college.”

“from college” and “in 2012” are two prepositional phrases, the order of which does not affect the meaning of the sentence:

  • “She graduated from college in 2012.”
  • “She graduated in 2012 from college.”

Dropping of prepositions may be common but can be, as in this example, bad English, too.

Solution:
“She graduated from college.”

Learn More:
See “She graduates high school this year.” for another explanation about why the preposition “from” is necessary.

Can’t vs. Cannot

Contractions, Devolution toward Simpler, Versus

I heard someone say “can or can’t” during an MP3-based interview this morning.

And it was only because of the context that I could be sure that the interviewee said “can’t” after the conjunction.

This got me to thinking: The popular use of “can’t” instead of “cannot” in spoken American English is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis.

In other words, it is simpler to say the one-syllable “can’t” than the two-syllable form.

But “can’t” can be difficult to hear (to distinguish from “can”).

Recommendation: Be nice to your audience by saying “cannot” instead of “can’t” in interviews, speeches, telephone calls, etc.

“It’s third ten on the forty.”

Conjunctions, Devolution toward Simpler, Prepositions

Huh?!

Reader Brian P. wrote to me yesterday with “It’s third ten on the forty.” as an example of a statement that he heard recently while watching an NFL football game on television.

The statement meant “It’s third down and ten yards to go on the forty-yard line.”

I believe that what bothered Brian the most was the omission of the conjunction “and” between the word “third” and the word “ten” in the statement.

In other words, I believe that Brian would have preferred to hear “It’s third and ten on the forty.” at the very least.

I believe that the omission of the conjunction “and” in the sentence is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to omit the conjunction than to include it.

Brian’s impression is that the omission is a broadcasting-school gimmick:

Dropping one[-]syllable words (many prepositions, plus articles, “and”, “if”, “as”, “is”, “are”, “have” and others) is the latest broadcast[ing-]school gimmick, and to my ear the most grating (with constant use of “actually” and “as well” running place and show).

If that is what broadcasting schools are teaching these days, then that is very discouraging.

On a brighter note: Happy New Year!