Common English Blunders

“It’s the question … posed of Senator Obama …”

Common English Blunders, Prepositions

I heard this yesterday on the Hugh Hewitt talk-radio show.

Problem:
The wrong preposition was used.

Explanation:
The talk-show host was describing a question that Senator Barack Obama received during a recent presidential debate.

The origin of the verb “pose” when it means to baffle, as by a difficult question is the obsolete verb “appose”, which is a variation of the verb “oppose”, used in the sense of the Latin word for to put to.

So, when one poses a question, one poses the question to a person, not of a person.

Unfortunately, “posing of” has become a common English blunder.

Solution:
“It’s the question … posed to Senator Obama …”

“Anticlimatic”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Nouns

I too frequently hear people say “anticlimatic” when they mean something else.

Problem:
“Anticlimatic” is a nonsense word.

Explanation:
Except for that use by those who have turned “anticlimatic” into a word applicable to climate — although it’s difficult to imagine what it means to be “anticlimatic” — this is a nonsense word.

Nearly everyone who says “anticlimatic” actually is trying to say an adjective whose meaning is expressing or pertaining to anticlimax.

“Anticlimactic” (notice the ‘c’ before the ‘tic’) — not “anticlimatic” — is the adjectival form of the noun “anticlimax” (just as “climactic” is the adjectival form of the noun “climax”).

I believe that the use of “anticlimatic” is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It’s simpler to say “anticlimatic” than to say “anticlimactic” (which requires the speaker to emphasize the middle ‘c’).

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following words and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • anticlimatic — 283,000 matches
  • anticlimactic — 401,000 matches

Assuming that the co-opting of the nonsense word “anticlimatic” by climate writers is an insignificant portion of the “anticlimatic” count, this tells me that Web authors have written the word correctly vs. incorrectly by a ratio of 1.4:1, which is a bit pathetic.

Solution:
“Anticlimactic”

“Monster … Gold Angled Spade Connectors (2 Pair)”

Commas, Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Number, Plurals

I saw this at Amazon.com.

Problem:
“Pair” is a singular noun being used incorrectly as a plural noun, and two commas are missing.

Explanation:
As I wrote last November, two of anything together is a single pair. Multiples of this means multiple pairs.

I continue to believe that use of “pair” instead of “pairs” helps to prove my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to say “pair” than to say “pairs”.

Beyond the “pair” problem, the product heading is missing a couple of commas.

“Gold” and “Angled” and “Spade” modify the noun “Connectors”; when one has multiple modifiers of a noun, commas should appear between the modifiers (in this case to get “Gold, Angled, Spade Connectors”).

I believe that omission of commas in a multiple-modifiers situation also is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis. It’s simpler to omit the commas than to include them, and advertising copywriters lean toward simpler text, even if it is grammatically incorrect and is more difficult to read.

Solution:
“Monster … Gold, Angled, Spade Connectors (2 Pairs)”