Linguistic Flexibility

This comic about adding a prefix to the verb “blow” reminded me that we have a tendency to wonder about the form of a word when we add a prefix to it or change the context. Does it change, or does it stay the same?

I’ve heard people use “mouses” when referring to computer mice. And when making backups, I’ve heard both “backed-up” and “backupped.”

Maybe you can think of an example or two. Put it in the comments.

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—By referring to something that’s not in the picture. The art director at KSTP channel 5 in Minnesota taught me this when I was a kid (Hi, Chan!)

If you have a caption that says “Boy makes a big jump,” show a picture of a boy jumping. If you have a caption “Boy misses a big jump,” you still show a picture of a boy jumping! Whatever is in the picture should be what’s in the caption, regardless of what you say about what’s in the picture.

And it should be the first thing in the caption. The subject.

So here’s an example of a supposed professional getting the caption egregiously wrong. Here’s the picture:

Here’s the caption:

Suspect indicted in Sussex woman’s death, dismemberment

Does she look like a murderer to you? You don’t find out until you read the article that the suspect is a man in this thirties. This is a picture of the victim!

Why would the newspaper get it backwards and not show the bad guy? I suspect it has something to do with getting more people to look. Marketing. And you know what I say about marketing communications folks, right?

All marcom people are insane.

NB—The next day they got it right. Picture of a man, and the caption is “Suspect in woman’s murder, dismemberment was arrested for DUI in Virginia”

I’m a technical writer. A lot of SMEs have handed me drafts of their documentation to “work my magic” on. If their document has an introduction (usually a paragraph right under the first heading) I frequently have to fix the first sentence. They like to write something like this:

This document is intended to describe/show/give the instructions for operating XYZ software/machine/process.

(the words with slashes are variables)

Folks, things like instructions are tangible. Either they’re in the document or they aren’t.

Get rid of that “intended”! The document either describes/shows/gives the content or it doesn’t!

Today I ran into a document that both uses “intended” and doesn’t use “intended” correctly !

My introduction is intended to provide a motivation for what follows. The first four chapters discuss the most plentiful objects in the night sky—the stars.

See? He intends to motivate you, and actually discusses the topic. Good for him! Go thou and do likewise!

The document deserves a bit more than a line of citation. The University of Chicago Press has a program where they let you download one of their books (of their choosing) for free every month. I downloaded this book, How We See the Sky: A Naked-Eye Tour of Day and Night by Thomas Hockey in March of 2019. Here’s a link to their program. If you like to read serious books online, take a look.

www.press.uchicago.edu/books/freeEbook.html

PS—He could have used the active instead of passive (“intends to provide” instead of “is intended to provide”), but hey, it’s academic. They always use the passive, don’t they?

Thought I’d share something that I noticed the other day. We treat abbreviations as if they were words separate from the phrase they represent. Here’s the sentence that I noticed:

Coincidentally, I used a clip from “Stalag 17” yesterday, and, in the movie version, Peter Graves plays a rat who is collaborating with government forces to betray Allied POWs.

http://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2019/02/27/csotd-piercing-the-cohen-of-silence/

What’s the plural of “prisoner of war”? It’s “prisoners of war.” But what’s the plural of “POW”? Yup, it’s “POWs.”—That certainly doesn’t mean “prisoner of wars.”

The plurals of “attorney general” and “court martial” both put the “s” on the first word, but after the abbreviation. Well, I’ve seen “AG” used for “attorney general.” I haven’t actually run into “CM,” though I suppose it could happen.

Not much of a lesson, but I thought I’d share. Can you think of any other examples? Put them in the comments.

This post has to do with three expressions that use the word accident that make it into an adverb.

If you ain’t got no good taste, use “on accident.” See the comic below, though the comic itself is worth subscribing to if you’re an intellectual.

If you’re normal, use “by accident.”

If you want to be top-notch in your writing, use “accidentally.”

Harrumpf. Ain’t never tried rye whiskey, myself…