Americanisms, and the evolution of language

[apple_pathways]

The planets have aligned once again to provide me with a topic for blogging: faery_fall posted a video of Stephen Fry discussing language as part of her 15 Day Meme, and fail_fandomanon had a discussion thread wherein a poster was complaining about the comments to an article on the BBC website about Americanisms creeping into British language. Surely these two occurrences are more than worthy of a mash-up here on this journal?

First, full confession: I used to be a total grammar pedant. I love language, and I love grammar! Mine is a brain easily seduced by the idea that there's a 'correct way' and an 'incorrect way' to do things. I love the idea that things can be done with "perfection", and I love to torture myself with the idea that perfection is obtainable. Unfortunately, I have a sneaking suspicion that it's not obtainable: or even desirable! And yet, despite a couple years of linguistics courses, my grammar pedantry persisted for years.

I can remember the exact day I gave it up.

I went to visit a close friend of mine: we were going swimming at the pool in her parent's condo complex. Before heading off, we chose reading material from her collection to read poolside. I was excited to discover she owned a copy of Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, by Lynne Truss, a book I'd been eying up in stores for months. I delight in learning grammar and punctuation rules the way sports enthusiasts obsess over the minutiae of the game.

I could barely make my way more than a few pages in before I was absolutely disgusted with the tone of the book: the way the author describes the shrieking paroxyisms of pain she experiences at the sight of a misplaced apostrophe! The agony of inadequate commas! Incorrect capitalization! Oh, the horror! THE HORROR!

*eyeroll* Please! It didn't take me long to realize I didn't want to give people the same vibe I was getting from this author.

After that experience, I quit cold turkey: no more complaining about the "10 Items or Less" line at Trader Joe's. No more "it's 'whom', not 'who'!" No more "better than 'they', not better than 'them'"!

(I still do have my Do Not Cross lines: it's "should have" or "should've", not "should of"!!! I am taking that one to the grave...)

All of this is to say: I know where these angry commenters are coming from. Really, I do! But...well, just look:

(These are responses readers sent in in response to the article about Americanisms creeping into British culture. I cherry-picked the most hyperbolic responses. You can read all of them in the article listed at the end of this post.) (Bolding is mine.)

14. I caught myself saying "shopping cart" instead of shopping trolley today and was thoroughly disgusted with myself. I've never lived nor been to the US either. Graham Nicholson, Glasgow

22. Train station. My teeth are on edge every time I hear it. Who started it? Have they been punished? Chris Capewell, Queens Park, London

27. "Oftentimes" just makes me shiver with annoyance. Fortunately I've not noticed it over here yet. John, London (Then why are you mentioning it?)

29. I'm a Brit living in New York. The one that always gets me is the American need to use the word bi-weekly when fortnightly would suffice just fine. Ami Grewal, New York

50. "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less" has to be the worst. Opposite meaning of what they're trying to say. Jonathan, Birmingham


(I had to mention that last one, as I've heard it before. It's actually a misunderstanding of the American phrase: "I could care less" is meant sarcastically.)

I have to confess that whenever the discussion of Americanisms comes up, I tend to find myself confused: America is a big country, and some vocabularly is not as wide-spread as one might imagine.

I remember listening to one of my favorite BBC radio programs, when one of the hosts started talking about a program on language that they'd recently listened to. He started talking about the phrase "tit-bits". "Did you know it's actually supposed to be 'tid-bits'?" he said. "'Tit-bits' is an Americanism!"

This was news to me! I've always said "tid-bits", and I'd never heard "tit bits" before I started listening to that program! It might be a genuine Americanism (as I said: it's a big country, and I'm not familiar with all its vocabulary) but I can't imagine that it is: mostly because the word 'tit' is much more common in the UK. I think it's considered a much ruder term in the US.

Which is to say: it's often confusing what terms and phrases are attributed to one country or another. Some 'Americanisms' actually originated in the UK, but fell out of use there before being re-imported via American media. Some Americanisms, reviled at their introduction, have simply merged with the language and become common use everywhere English is spoken: 'lengthy', 'reliable', 'talented', 'influential', and 'tremendous' all originated in the Colonies. (The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was particularly disgusted with the word 'talented'. Read the article listed at the end of this entry for more!)

(Lest anyone think all the Brits are hyperbolically annoyed, here's my favorite reader quote from the article:

19. I enjoy Americanisms. I suspect even some Americans use them in a tongue-in-cheek manner? "That statement was the height of ridiculosity". Bob, Edinburgh

*touches nose* Bingo! Somebody get Bob a prize... And yes. I made up the word 'hyperbolically' to illustrate Bob's point!)

There are many Americanisms I wouldn't bother to defend. No, I take that back: I wouldn't bother to defend any of them! Because that's not how language works. Societies don't choose their vocabulary by committee: language evolves, with little influence from most individuals. (Oh, that I had the influence of Shakespeare and all of the many words he coined!)

The concluding point of the original article is that the author mourns the erosion of British culture as distinct from American culture. I can see why that would be worrying: the increasing globalization of the world means that a lot of change is happening very quickly, and I'm sure all sorts of culture and customs get lost in the shuffle. I just wonder if policing language is the tact to take? (I don't think so. Language evolves, and there's not much use in trying to stop it.)

I do think I might have lost the point in this long ramble of an article: I think mostly I want to spark discussion, as I love talking about language! So, here's a list of discussion questions, followed by a list of resources:

• Do you have an unfavorite Americanism?
  
• What about your grammar and/or punctuation pet peeves?
  
• Pro or anti-pedant?
  
• How do you feel about the natural evolution of language? Should we try to prevent it from happening in certain instances, or stand out of its way?
  
• Any favorite language anecdotes or facts to share?

Resources:

Stephen Fry! (The video faery_fall posted.)

The BBC articles:
Viewpoint: Why do some Americanisms irritate people?
Americanisms: 50 of your most noted examples

Separated By a Common Language: I should have guessed that she would be discussing these articles! :P I was merely going to suggest this as an excellent blog dealing with the differences between American and British English. It's written by an American linguist living in the UK.

Comments

[roh-wyn.livejournal.com]

Fascinating post! I remember we had a bit of a throwdown about language in the chat room recently, right? My single brain cell has since forgotten what the point was, fwiw. But I love the idea of language (and particularly the evolution of a common language separated by time and geography), so this is right in my interest wheelhouse. Thank you!

I should preface all my comments with two disclaimers. First, English is not really my first language, although I speak it as well as I speak any other language. Second, I know I'm guilty of some of the pet peeves I rant about below, so my apologies for the hypocrisy/inconsistency.

1. Do you have an unfavorite Americanism?

I don't know if this is an Americanism generally, but it's very common in the Midwest: Are you coming with? Obviously, the object is implicit and inherent, but it does sort of make me break out into a very mild rash when I hear it. (I suspect there's a historical reason for this usage. I think it comes from direct translation from German into English, i.e. Kommen Sie mit? becomes Are you coming with?)

Also, I want to run away when I hear people say "irregardless" and "supposably".

2. What about your grammar and/or punctuation pet peeves?

Split infinitives. I know most people don't even notice this, but when I see it in print, it makes me think the editors of the piece were just being lazy.

Oh, and I here's where I break with traditional punctuation: I hate the Oxford/Harvard/serial comma, and I don't care what CMoS has to say about it. ;)

3. Pro or anti-pedant?

I'm still something of a pedant, but I'm less pedantic than I used to be. I've come to realize, over time, that the point of written and verbal language is communication, and the occasional error of grammar or usage does not interfere with communication.

How do you feel about the natural evolution of language? Should we try to prevent it from happening in certain instances, or stand out of its way?

I don't think you can prevent it. Note how the French and the Germans are constantly having to create new usage rules to account for normal evolution of speech and usage in their language. It's just more work for everyone, and we should just let it happen as it always does--organically.

Any favorite language anecdotes or facts to share?

One of my relatives routinely says "all the both of you", and I'm now so used to it, I don't even laugh anymore. Or at least not in a cruel and derisive way. :)

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

I HAVE MANY THOUGHTS ON THIS TOPIC

but it is late, so remind me to come back when i have some brain saved up (and LJ is working properly again)

[faery-fall.livejournal.com]

Okay, I say "tid bits" often, but what the heck are "tit bits?" It sounds to me like the sad remains of a boob job.

Do you have an unfavorite Americanism?
From browsing the 50 Americanisms article, I do hate "normalcy" with a likely inappropriate verve.

What about your grammar and/or punctuation pet peeves?
My main punctuation pet peeves are errant apostrophes (where things are supposed to be plural, not possessive, and vice versa) and bizarre commas. There was someone on my F-list who constantly misplaced commas near conjunctions - I think they placed commas directly after the ands and buts, and it was very distracting at first. The only punctuation error that actually makes me angry is the placement of punctuation outside of quotation marks in dialogue, if the person responsible is out of 4th grade. In college, this annoyance graduated to people not knowing how to cite things properly.

Pro or anti-pedant?
I'm very pedantic when it comes to language in journalism and advertising and such, but anti-pedant for creative writing and daily speech.

How do you feel about the natural evolution of language? Should we try to prevent it from happening in certain instances, or stand out of its way?
I desperately don't want "of" to replace "have" via some linguistic Idiocracy-esque tragedy, but I am very pro-evolution for language. That's what makes it so exciting!

[ladybracknell.livejournal.com]

Probably going to be way out of step here as a Brit who doesn't give a fig about Americanisms. To me there are only two kinds of language: the inventively used, and the not. When I think of the way Joss Whedon used Valley slang and idiom and messed with the laws of grammar in Buffy, it makes me positively linguistically giddy, and I feel the same way about terms like 'ridiculosity' - it's inventive, I can understand it, it's fun. IMHO pedants have forgotten what language is for. One does language and its wonderful, infinite possibiilities no favours by locking it in a glass case and only letting it out to be played with by people who know the difference between 'fewer' and 'less than'. Instead of having a ragegasm about every perceived infraction on their language, they should go and write a poem and use the thing they claim to have such passion for to enrich our collective soul.

Granted, there are plenty of phrases and words I wouldn't personally choose to use, but that list is not at all restricted to Americanism, and entirely based upon what's pleasing to me to say or write. And isn't the beauty of language that there's so much of it I have choice? If I don't want to say, 'that's BS,' I can say, 'dear sir, I believe you're talking absolute piffle,' or, 'man, your arse is parsley,' or, 'balderdash, what tripe.'

What amuses me about these people is they think they're somehow defending our heritage, that Shakespeare and Chaucer are somewhere looking down and applauding their vim. They're not; they'd be the first in line to whack them in the nads with a cod.

[ladylovelace.livejournal.com]

Dude with anti-"train station" hard-on is a moron. Train station has been in the British vocabulary for about as long as fucking trains have.

Actually, so is oftentimes dude. Don't these people read?

Having more ways to say things is a good thing. No-one is stopping (general) you, personally, from saying things the way you want to say them. If you have to explain yourself all the time, you can either choose to keep explaining yourself or use the culturally appropriate word. LEARNING IS FREE. Your preference is no more valid than anyone else's preference.

Tell you what, though, the next time someone describes 'colour' as a misspelling is getting a visit. It is a perfectly acceptable spelling and was here first.

Grammar, on the other hand, I've decided can go to hell. As long as the sentence makes sense to a person with a high-school reading level, I'll call it fine (because I have read that many style guides which advocate completely incorrect grammar that I've given up and decided that there is no such thing. Like perfection itself, grammar is in the eye of the beholder.)

ETA: FUCKING SHAKESPEARE USED OFT'TIMES. WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK THAT MEANT, ANTI-OFTENTIMES DUDE? /stupidity rage

[(Anonymous)]

I have read Eats, Shoots and Leaves in its entirety. A misplaced apostrophe leaves me fuming as well. Sorry etc.

And don't get all high 'n' mighty about could vs. couldn't care less. Face it. It's wrong. If it's sarcasm, it's the worst I've ever heard and it's not working. The rest of the English-speaking world thinks it's mad.

I refer you to this video...



I agree about the rest. There's little point trying to resist evolution of the language. However, I am on the pedantic side (though I will add this does not only apply to "American English" - standards of written and spoken English are slipping here as well).

I hope you can tell my somewhat aggressive opening to this comment was written in jest. I'm not in favour of burning people at the stake over their spelling and pronunciation, even though I do feel very strongly.

Stewart

Oh, and if an American misunderstands me due to my British vocabulary and proceeds to ask me to "speak English," there is hell to pay.

[switchbladesis.livejournal.com]

I'm still having trouble posting long comments ::eyes other tab with 7k long fic I'm trying to get posted::, so I'm going to leave this here first:



I think you might have seen it before, but just in case you haven't.

[switchbladesis.livejournal.com]

Do you have an unfavorite Americanism?

Um. The spelling of 'gray' with the 'ay'. I guess. I prefer the 'grey' spelling, because that seems closer to how I pronounce it (I don't pull out the inland north A for 'grey' the way I do for, say, 'bay'). But I don't know which spelling is actually older- it might have been one of those words that we preserved from an older version of English that died out in England but not in the US. Like a number of the Americanisms that people are complaining about in the BBC article.

Can I talk about my favorites instead? Curses. Regional variations in curses are fucking awesome. Hand to God, I had to explain to someone that some adults (with no children around) really do say 'Holy Buckets!' in Minnesota, not to mention 'Holy Balls' . . . and they aren't even talking about testicles. Suggest that they are, and you might get a nice 'oh jeez, no', out of it. It's amazing!

What about your grammar and/or punctuation pet peeves?

Probably blatant acts of comma misuse and abuse. Which, okay, I'm not perfect either. But sometimes you really do mean to use a semicolon, or don't really mean to pause.

Also, I'm totally okay with the subjunctive dying a fiery death.

Pro or anti-pedant?

Okay. So, language is meant for communication. As long as you can communicate your idea in a way that the meaning is clear, I'm for it. It's just . . . where is that line? I'm for vowels being in words, at least. Vowels are cool.

How do you feel about the natural evolution of language? Should we try to
prevent it from happening in certain instances, or stand out of its way?

I'm a descriptivist, not a prescriptivist.

Any favorite language anecdotes or facts to share?

I was going to link to David Foster Wallace's essay on dictionary feuds, but apparently Harper's is no longer letting people access it for free. :(

But I did find a link to this map! Now, if only they'd do a map of the variations in various types of cursing . . .

[zweiundzwei]

LJ keeps eating my comments, goddamn!

I should note I learnt English on the internet, so I was never very good at telling regional varieties apart, or keeping silent letters silent.

Do you have an unfavorite Americanism?
Pronouncing herbs as erbs makes me cringe and laugh, even though the h has historically always been silent, yes yes. It just sounds so silly :P

What about your grammar and/or punctuation pet peeves?
American spelling is so illogical when it comes to quotation marks! Otherwise I am told I abuse commas and have no room to talk. Gratuitous apostrophes are annoying though.  And quotation marks as non-ironic emphasis. Even my mum does it!

Pro or anti-pedant?
Both. I mean, writing will always have to be largely prescriptive, if we want to understand each other. I like knowing the exact meaning and correct use of words and grammar, too. Precise language can be so beautiful! But then I misconstruct relative clauses on a daily basis, so.

How do you feel about the natural evolution of language? Should we try to prevent it from happening in certain instances, or stand out of its way?
Go evolution! More choice for everyone.
I've noticed that with different groups of friends I speak differently. In my amnesty international group antiquated swearing was all the rage, with Clara and my other New Zealand friends, we say  (German) "gut" all the time. Since New Zealand I use eh and sweet as.
Out of protest against the ridiculous overuse of English everywhere, some of my friends now pronounce the supermarket "basic" as if it was a slavic word. It's fun and I stole it.
What I'm trying to say is: I don't think it's a matter of avoiding and halting or "standing out of the way". You're always changing language as well.

Any favorite language anecdotes or facts to share?
Probably, but I've run out of things I want to say I think.

[stick-poker.livejournal.com]

I really liked Eats, Shoots and Leaves, and though I can see why you stopped, it could be worth persisting with. I started reading it because I feel the same little spurt of rage when I see those errant apostrophes. The trick, which I think is one of the points of the book, is working out what to do with that rage.

I like using language as a communication tool. The conventions of grammar are useful, and allow precision; there has to be a rule system before you can mess with it. And while there will always be innovators and areas of innovation, and innovation is good, there has to be resistance to innovation too or you're just left with no system any more. It's true that it's irritating when people show their resistance by whining, and even more when it's ill-informed whining, blaming it all on Americanisms or lolspeak or whatever, but the thing that spurs the whining is the same thing that spurs me to, e.g., backspace there and make sure I put full stops in that e.g., and then add an extra clause to the sentence because I'm pretty certain I can't write e.g. and then add another full stop on the end to show I'm finishing the sentence too, but I don't know what else to do. Detached from the whininess, the whines are possibly even useful, when some future linguist comes to do analysis of what's said where and when by way of seeing what people are complaining about.

I think Lynn Truss ends up celebrating the urge to correct punctuation as a useful tool in keeping language understandable, but also makes it clear along the way that language does change, will continue to change, and there are so many variations in convention that we're all just approximating anyway. There's a whole section about comma wars, various newspaper style guides and usage guides clashing over them and the personalities behind those clashes, which I really enjoyed.

I'm always going to notice when language is used in a way that's not in a convention I recognise. (I recognise more conventions than average but still not all of them; I'm sure someone somewhere has slapped their forehead over my 'whom' blind spot.) You're always going to notice a lot of convention fails too, I'd guess, and you can let them slide or get in a froth. You're prepared to admit 'should of' as a frother, but even then it's not like you're always going to point it out - it's not always tactful. Then again you could proofread some formal work and you'd pick out something much less obvious than that, wouldn't you? Not get angry but say 'this isn't right'. Deciding to let it slide as much as possible is good for the blood pressure, but the thing that urges frothing is still a useful thing, and it's understandable that people give in and froth now and then. It'd be nice if they always did it from an informed position but I'd rather people cared and frothed misguidedly than just gave up on caring.

With that in mind, forgive me for congratulating you on having discovered the word 'hyperbolically'. *grins*

[zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com]

Do you have an unfavorite Americanism? - As an American, my first impulse was to skip this question, but I changed my mind. Just to be obnoxious, I'm going to weigh in as an Islander expressing my ire concerning a... Mainlandism? Mainlanderism? (Just what is the adjective form of "the Mainland"?) Namely, flip-flops. I am inclined, out of a sense of place and pride and cultural identity, to insist on slippers/slippahs/rubber slippers/rubbah slippahs, but that's mostly just me having fun. I don't actually care; on the Mainland, "slipper" means something else, it makes sense for Mainlanders to have a separate word for the thong sandal. The Mainland can feel free to call the item whatever it wishes (I will just laugh at it for sounding silly). ...Where I get peeved is when a Mainlander will insist at great length that a flip-flop not only should not, but cannot be called a slipper, and that we in Hawai‘i are stupid for doing so. Ffffffffffffffff— [INCOHERENT RAGE GOES HERE] 1) Linguistically, the word "slipper" implies something that you slip on to your foot; therefore, it makes perfect sense to call the thong sandal a slipper. 2) WE INVENTED THE DAMN THING, WE CAN CALL IT WHATEVER WE WANT, the fact that you thought they were kind of neat and started wearing them too and made up a silly new name for them DOESN'T CHANGE THE FACT THAT WE HAD THEM FIRST AND GODDAMMIT THEY ARE CALLED SLIPPERS, OKAY. 3) STOP TRYING TO INVALIDATE MY CULTURAL IDENTITY, DICKHEAD. Yes, it is actually that big of a deal, it's a god-damn cultural icon over here, the slipper is as important to us as our food and our music and our mythology, it's not just a shoe to us, okay?

aslkdhglksdfldfs I have had this argument with people far too many times, IT IS SO ANNOYING.

What about your grammar and/or punctuation pet peeves? - Misuse of apostrophes is probably the most cringe-worthy. I'm all for new words and changing the use of words and the evolution of meanings, and even some changes in the use of punctuation can be arguable, but there is just no excuse for sticking an apostrophe into a plural word where it doesn't belong. It's just– you're just doing it wrong. Also, I'm with you on "should of" all the way. What, that just doesn't even make sense, it's born of people spelling things based on pronunciation without stopping to think of what words actually mean.

Pro or anti-pedant? - Oh boy, ask me to choose a side in practically any argument, and I will immediately be inclined to say NEITHER AND/OR BOTH. (I think that covers all the bases, doesn't it?) I am a knee-jerk fence-sitter, and this is not an exception. Black and white, what are they? Shades of gray, people. Shades of gray.

TL;DR = YAY WORDS!

[jacknjill270.livejournal.com]

Words and Stephen Fry, it's a post about two of my favorites! I love words. I love them. I love making up new ones (especially when it comes to creative swearing, you're a shit-sucking cockblossom, etc etc :) ), I love learning about words I've never heard before, I love finding out different words in different cultures for the same thing. Until I started getting into British fandoms did I really appreciate it; it fascinated me that a trunk of a car could also be called a boot or a sweater a jumper. Some words, like "lollygag", are just fun to say. Or sentences with a lot of alliteration, like the line from "Werewolves of London" that goes "little old lady got mutilated late last night," I love that. It just rolls off the tongue so nicely. :) I probably sound really pretentious sometimes because I love using British English if I think they sound interesting. Like "proper," I like that, like "She's a proper slapper." And skip sounds so much nicer than dumpster. I should put on job applications that I'm fluent in American and British English!

Do you have an unfavorite Americanism?
Out of the list from the BBC article, I'm not fond of "fanny pack." I just don't like the way it sounds.

What about your grammar and/or punctuation pet peeves?
This is more word choice than grammar, but people using "bemused" when they mean "amused" bug me. I see this ALL THE TIME in fic..."The Doctor smiled at Amy, bemused." IT MEANS HE WAS CONFUSED OR PREOCCUPIED, NOT AMUSED. Misplaced apostrophes, or "your" instead of "you're." Or "irregardless." Also I hear a lot of people where I live who pronounce "having" like "haffing." I don't know if that's a Midwest thing or just the people in my part of northern Illinois mispronounce it.

Pro or anti-pedant?
Anti, for the most part. I'm a bit of one myself so I can't be completely against it (see all of my pet peeves!). But pendantic often comes off like "asshole," especially to the people being corrected, so I try to contain myself when I want correct my friends' Facebook updates for spelling.

How do you feel about the natural evolution of language? Should we try to prevent it from happening in certain instances, or stand out of its way?
I took an anthropology class over the summer and some of the students were moaning about LOL and OMG being added to Oxford Dictionary. I didn't understand the fuss, myself - language is always changing and evolving and words that are popular today might be out of use by next year.

Any favorite language anecdotes or facts to share?
The Haiwaiian alphabet only has twelve letters. No word in the English language rhymes with "month" (but there are two words that rhyme with orange!). Screeched is the longest one syllable word. The most used letters of the English alphabet are E, T, A, I, O, and N. A male kangaroo is called a boomer, and a female is a flyer. J was the last letter to be added to the English alphabet. The medical term for writer’s cramp is graphospasm. Butterflies used to be called Flutterby. The dot over the letter i is called a tittle. "Callipygean" means having a nice ass, and the sensation caused by tickling is called gargalesthesia.

...did I mention I really like words? :)