Month: March 2009

“He escaped prison.”

Devolution toward Simpler, Prepositions, Verbs

I heard this recently during a TV news broadcast.

Problem:
A preposition is missing.

Explanation:
The news broadcaster made the statement “He escaped prison.” while describing a prisoner who had managed to illegally free himself from a prison.

But the verb “escape” means to get away, or to gain or regain freedom.

So “He escaped prison.” literally means any of these:

  • “He got away prison.”
  • “He gained freedom prison.”
  • “He regained freedom prison.”

Any of these sentences reveals to us the preposition that is missing from “He escaped prison.”

I believe that this omission is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to omit the required preposition than to include it.

And this blog post illustrates a simple method for discovering whether a preposition is missing, excessive, or just right. The method entails simply rewriting the sentence or phrase or expression with the definition of the verb in place of the verb.

Solution:
“He escaped from prison.”

“Persecute” vs. “Prosecute”

Verbs, Versus

Most people do not confuse these two verbs, but their similarity deserves a blog post.

Problem:
These two verbs are spelled so similarly that there definitely is potential to treat them as synonyms, which they are not.

Explanation:
This verb “persecute” dates back to the first half of the fifteenth century.

“Persecute” begins with the prefix “per”, which means utterly or thoroughly.

The other part of “persecute” is related to the word “sequence”, a definition of which is something that follows.

Knowing these roots, it is easy to understand how the verb “persecute” means to pursue persistently with oppressive or harassing treatment.

The verb “prosecute” dates back to 1432 but apparently did not get applied as a legal term until 1579.

“Prosecute” begins with the prefix “pro”, which in this verb means favor for some party.

As with “persecute”, the other part of “persecute” is related to the word “sequence”, a definition of which is something that follows.

Knowing these roots, one can understand how the verb “prosecute” means to seek to enforce or carry on.

Solution:
Think harassment when you see the verb “persecute”; think legal proceeding when you see the verb “prosecute”.

“Congressman”

Devolution toward Simpler, Nouns

The U.S. Congress has been in the news a lot recently, creating bills to spend hundreds of billions of dollars here and hundreds of billions more there.

And I have been thinking about the noun “congressman” as a title.

The U.S. Congress comprises two branches: the Senate, and the House of Representatives.

So technically a “congressman” or “congresswoman” is either a U.S. Senator or a U.S. Representative.

But do not dare called a U.S. Senator by the title “Congressman” or “Congresswoman”; oh, the horror!

No, a U.S. Senator with the surname “Hotair” wants to be called “Senator Hotair”, not “Congressman Hotair” or “Congresswoman Hotair”.

In contrast, a U.S. Representative with the surname “Hotair” typically prefers to be called “Congressman Hotair” or “Congresswoman Hotair”, not “Representative Hotair”.

I suspect that part of this is because the word “congress” often refers to the U.S. legislative branch and not to a state legislative branch, whereas the word “representative” is often used to refer to elected officials in state legislative branches and is much less commonly used to refer to elected officials in the U.S. House of Representatives.

So “congressman” (or “congresswoman”) is more prestigious because it is more often associated with a higher position (the U.S. legislative branch) than is “representative” (applicable to many, but not all, state legislative branches).

But I also believe that “congressman” is more popular than “representative” in modern American English because it is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to say the three-syllable “congressman” than it is to say the five-syllable “representative”.

In contrast, but consistent with my hypothesis, because the five-syllable “representative” is only slightly more complex than the four-syllable “congresswoman”, we tend to hear and see “Representative” almost as often as “Congresswoman” in reference to female members of the U.S. House of Representatives.