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| Wednesday, October 11, 2006 |
| Pet peeve of the week |
This week is my Catching Up Week. One thing I've been remiss in doing is bringing you my weekly gripe. I got caught up in the wonder of the butterflies and lost track of what I was supposed to be doing! (Oops, wrong usage of 'caught up' in that sentence. :blush:) A few deadlines intervened, too.
So my Pet Peeve this week is, Why do many people dehumanize those of whom they speak?
When mentioning someone, either by name, or by description (a woman, a man, a cashier, a tenant, etc.), too many people refer to them as "that" rather than "who". I'm talking about the news anchor, your neighbor, your brother -- ye gods, even authors are guilty of this!
Proper phrasing is, "Nineteen students who came to the capitol spoke with their representatives." NOT "Nineteen students that..." They're people, which makes them a "who", not a "that" or a "what". Apologies to all of you colloquial speakers -- "Them what has, gets," is universally acknowledged as incorrect. Perhaps folksy and pithy, but seriously flawed from a grammatical standpoint. You should use "that" when talking about kangaroos or limosines, not folks like you and me!
Try counting the occurrences of this that you hear or see every day. The number will grow far beyond what you expect. Sort of like the number of manhole covers on the stretch of North Valley Road between Lancaster Pike and Swedesford Road in Paoli, but that's a story for another day. (I think there's a secret underground alien installation. Or else the government maintains some sort of nefarious research facility beneath the road. There's a story there somewhere...)
I've ranted before about the perils of Big Houses, and this makes me wonder if this particular bit of imprecision in our language is contributing to the general increase in rudeness our culture exhibits. If you don't think we're becoming a rude nation, try driving on a highway at rush hour.
And if you're talking about me, I'm definitely a "who"!
Hugs,
Liddy |
posted by Liddy Midnight @ 10:02 PM  |
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LMAO Liddy