A
Readers' Potpourri
Far-Flung Correspondence
After a few e-mail exchanges, Jane Greer of Bismarck, N.D.,
a poet, state employee and lifelong "word dog," sent along
a hefty collection of things that get under her skin, and
should. A sampling:
FACILITATE. Winston Churchill said, "Short words are best
and the old words when short are best of all." I don't go
through a day without hearing "facilitate." What in the
world does it mean? "Help"? "Lead"? "Coordinate"? "Troubleshoot"?
Say what you mean.
IMPLEMENT.
This word has dozens of subtly different meanings that generally
stand for either "start" or "accomplish," but we all "implement."
Why?
IN
A TIMELY MANNER. If you mean "quickly," say so. If you mean
"in plenty of time," "before the deadline," or "before it's
too late," say that.
INTERFACE.
An interface, among other things, is the connection between
a computer program and its user. Non-techies have come to
use it as a verb meaning "talk with each other." I don't
get it.
SHARE. You're welcome to share your inheritance with me,
but not your feelings. This word is used without thought
by folks to mean they're going to tell me something. Don't
try to make me feel warm and fuzzy. Just tell me what you
want to tell me.
TERMINATE.
If you're going to fire me, fire me. Don't make it sound
better than it is -- don't let me go, as if I'd begged for
it. And don't terminate me, unless you plan on hiring a
goon to do it.
MYSELF.
"If you have any questions, contact my secretary or myself."
Writers use this because they remember (correctly) from
English class that "Bob and me played ball" (where "me"
is part of the subject) is wrong, and generalize (incorrectly)
that "Give the ball to Bob and me" (where "me" is part of
the object of the preposition) must also be wrong -- or
at least somehow less genteel than "Bob and myself." No,
no, no. The "self" words are reflexive pronouns, to be used
only when the subject and object of a verb are the same
person or thing, as in "I hurt myself" or "He hurt himself"
or "The dog hurt itself." Similarly, "Don't hurt yourself"
is right because the understood subject, "you," is the same
as the object, "yourself." But "I'll send this to Jim and
yourself" is wrong; "I" and "yourself" are two different
people. The English for it is "to Jim and you."
UTILIZE.
Of all the bad habits American speakers and writers have,
this one seems hardest to break. Too many people who should
know better still write and say "utilize" in place of good
old "use." The fancier word shouldn't be banned -- one worthwhile
definition is "to turn to profitable account or use" --
but usually all people gain by using it is two syllables
and the joy of feeling superior when in fact they sound
ridiculous. ("Utilization" is even more abominable.) Let's
not let our language make us look foolish. That's what car
phones are for.
Speaking
of "myself," a note prompted by the discussion in these
pages of "Older Than Him" came from Loren Tretyakov, head
of the translation department at the Russian news agency
Interfax, where all reports originate in Russian. Noting
that her copy editors, native English speakers, often misuse
pronouns, she went on:
"My
contribution is: ' "It is assumed that somebody, clearly
Primakov and myself are meant, sells Cabinet positions,"
he said.'
"Wouldn't
'Primakov and I' be correct?"
It would. Broken down, the clause says that "Primakov
is meant and I am meant." What's wanted in such cases
is a pronoun that is a subject, in this case "I," not
an object. We can't say "myself (or me) is meant," so
we have to say "Primakov and I are meant."
"Hey,
ejenk," Charlie McDonald e-mailed from Las Cruces, N.M.,
where he is retired as a high school English teacher but
active as a freelance writer and weekend singer-guitarist,
"how about jumping on 'he graduated Harvard in 1966' "?
Clearly appalled at having heard a famous broadcaster say
that, Mr. McDonald added, "Zounds!"
Zounds it is. "Graduated Harvard" (or anything else) is
a common error; the phrase needs "from." Technically, it's
the institution that does the graduating -- moving the student
up a grade -- and some traditionalists hold out for "was
graduated from." The "was" is uncommon these days, but the
"from" is not optional if we don't want to look illiterate.
John
Luke, a freelance writer and editor in Sierra Madre, Calif.,
sent this complaint:
"For
years, I've been grinding my teeth when radio journalists
say things like 'between seventy to eighty people were seen
sliding down the rope.' I want to respond by telling them
they're putting me between a rock to a hard place. You don't
see this in print much, but it's all over radio news, even
on the high-quality stations."
Mr. Luke is right, of course; "between" takes "and," not
"to," and the people who make him grind his teeth belong
where they've been putting him.
Addendum,
5/25/99 - It happens in print, too; from a newspaper front
page: "...stole design information about America's most
advanced warhead, the W-88, between 1984 to 1988."
