Mind your English

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, AUG. 20. Too many Humpty Dumptys insisting that words mean what they want them to mean are destroying English language with their pompous cliches and pretentious jargon. And, besides, they are not making sense to the people they are addressing, says Prof. Larry Trask of the University of Sussex and compiler of ``Mind the Gaffe: The Penguin Guide to Common Errors in English.''

He has identified 20 keywords which, he says, are commonly misused or overused making English fit only for ``twits''. The problem is that half the academics, journalists and bureaucrats might be out of business if they follow his advice and stop analysing ``paradigm'' shifts, or start avoiding ``interface'' with people who are so keen on ``synergy'' and ``feedback''.

Besides, how would economists describe growth if not in ``exponential'' terms, and which educationist worth his pedantry would choose not to ``communicate'' which Prof. Trask believes is an absurd synonym for simply saying or talking. And try telling a bureaucrat to find another word for ``empowerment'' and he would throw the file at you. Prof. Trask, however, would have none of it - and so out and away with the ``aforementioned'' and the following: ``linear'', ``input'', ``hegemonic'', ``peruse'', ``albeit'', ``epicentre'', ``fortuitous'', ``ironically'', ``at this moment in time'', ``privileged'', ``utilise'' and ``octopi''.

About ``feedback'', without which the corporate world might come to a halt, he says: ``It is the number one pretentious word in the language today. No page of bureaucratic prose can be constructed without it, regardless of the content.'' Another word he hates with equal venom is ``input'' which he terms as the ``soulmate'' of feedback - used for anything from ``contribution'' to ``comment''. Anyone using the expression ``at this moment in time'' arouses the professor's instant hostility for its ``pretentiousness''. It is just a puffed-up version of the much simpler ``now'', he says and challenges ``synergy- wallahs'' to explain what the term really means.

Some would say that Prof. Trask is overstating the case, but there is increasing concern in Britain over the way English is written - or not written. As he says: ``Even graduates with good degrees often find themselves with a command of standard English that is at best inadequate and at worst distressing.''

The situation, he warns, is serious enough and the much-reviled Ms. Malaprop who famously declared that ``allegories are sunning themselves on the banks of the Nile'' could well be striking back.

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Section  : International
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