Devolution toward Simpler

“… a couple callers …”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Nouns

I heard this the other day, and I hear this type of construction a lot.

Problem:
The word “couple” is not an adjective.

Explanation:
The word “couple” is a noun, not an adjective.

In particular, “couple” is a group noun, just as “flock” and “gaggle” and “colony” are group nouns.

Just as you should not say “a gaggle geese”, you should not say “a couple callers”.

The solution is illustrated in these examples:

  • “a gaggle of geese”;
  • “a flock of seagulls”;
  • “a colony of ants”.

That is, the solution requires the preposition “of” between the group noun and what the group noun is collecting, if you will.

I believe that the dropping of the preposition “of” in “a couple callers” is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to not say or write the preposition “of” than to include it.

Solution:
“… a couple of callers …”

“Quote” vs. “Quotation”

Devolution toward Simpler, Nouns, Versus

I have been wondering about these two nouns for awhile.

Problem:
One of these nouns is less appropriate in more formal situations.

Explanation:
According to Dictionary.com, the noun “quote” has been accepted — at least informally — as a truncation of the noun “quotation” for more than a century.

However, most consider “quote” to be less formal than “quotation” and not appropriate in all situations.

For example, while many consider “quotes from the Three Stooges” to be acceptable, fewer consider “quotes from the Bible” to be acceptable.

I doubt that the phrase “price quote” will disappear from American English.

It’s valuable, though, to know that “quote” is a truncation of “quotation” and therefore is less formal.

Although using “quote” as a truncation of “quotation” does not lead to ambiguity (in contrast to “install” — a truncation of either “installer” or “installation”), I believe that this use is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It’s simpler to say the one-syllable word than it is to say the three-syllable word.

Solution:
Use “quote” in informal situations; use “quotation” otherwise.

“Congradulations!”

Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Imperatives

My wife saw this on a banner in a grocery store years ago, and I have seen this increasingly often over the years.

Problem:
There is no such (properly spelled) word.

Explanation:
When my wife told a manager in the grocery store that the word on the banner was misspelled and even showed him where it was misspelled, the manager insisted, “No, it isn’t!”

Also, the manager did not suggest to my wife that it was a play on words — as in “ConGRADulations, GRADUATES!”

Instead, the manager argued that this was a properly spelled word.

I believe that spelling “congratulations” as “congradulations” is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis.

Because it’s simpler to say the ‘d’ in “congradulations” than to say the first ‘t’ in “congratulations”, many American English speakers mispronounce and hear it this way and subsequently believe that the ‘d’ belongs where the ‘t’ should go.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following words (without the quotation marks) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “congratulations” — 74,300,000 matches
  • “congradulations” — 1,360,000 matches

This tells me that Web authors favor “congratulations” over “congradulations” by a ratio of 54.6:1 — good, but not great, especially given the more than one million matches for the misspelled word, and even assuming that some of the instances of “congradulations” were a play on words.

Solution:
“Congratulations!”