Know your English

[suresh]

(W)rite on, Athithee.

[gbelday]

I was talking to someone recently recently who mentioned that she can figure out whether a piece is written by an Indian author or not based on the usage of the word "till" versus "until". I never realized that until that conversation. I tend to use "till" a lot!

[kujo]

Pakistan “should be pressurized by the world community to do much more to bring to book all those people who are responsible for this horrible crime,” Singh said. “The trauma of the attack continues to haunt us.”

This usage of the word "pressurized" continues to irk me. What the devil are you trying to say there? Gives me a vivid image of food being cooked inside a pressure cooker!! Shouldn't it be "pressured"??

You can't "pressurize" a country or a person, not literally not in a proper English sentence. I am sure you can pressure someone or a country though.

kujo

[riva]

Wahhh, great vry interesting thread, good.

[riva]

Hi,

great very interesting thread, good.

[suresh]

On another note, I have heard that "prepone" is not a real word; it probably exists only in the Indian vernacular. Not sure about it. The ESPNstar link uses it as well as the word "loose" (sic). The English pundits may please opine on whether "prepone" and "preponement" are correct or not. At some later time, if there are too many responses, this discussion may need to be moved to "know your english" thread. Thanks.

My personal take: I find the use of prepone jarring to my ears and use advance instead. The online version of the Cambridge and Oxford dictionaries do not have the word. Here are a couple of other links.

Is it ok to use prepone?
Poll: Do you use 'prepone' for the opposite of 'postpone'?

[prasen9]

My take on this is as follows. The objective of language is communication. If the readers/audience are of South Asian origin, I do use prepone because people understand it easily. If I am talking to a Western audience or a mixed audience, that causes some confusion or some folks get alarmed about the use of this strange word. Hence, I tend not to use it but use "moved up" or something akin to that.

[Atithee]

This discussion made me prepone my quest for an answer. The way I see it is that if postpone is an accepted usage where post- is being used as a prefix with a Latin based root word pōnere (to put), then I see nothing wrong in using the word pre- as a suffix for the same root word either. In fact, is there a similar restriction for any other word that uses post- as a prefix? With texting/emailing butchering the written form anyway, all that matters is whether the meaning is communicated. Who cares and why make a fuss about this if we are fine with psychology, sulphur, etc.

[prasen9]

I have mellowed down from being a purist to a pragmatist, but, the hardest is to accept the use of double negatives where the obvious intended meaning is a single one. But, as they say, language evolves and is defined by use (and abuse).

[suresh]

But, as they say, language evolves and is defined by use (and abuse).

Absolutely right, I agree with you one hundred percent. In fact, if this is not allowed, the language will die a natural death. I struggle with SMSese though and put it down to my being an old fogie That being said, it is important to write properly -- this is something I struggle to convey to my students as they are convinced that everything is okay if the technical part is correct, the rest being irrelevant window dressing. A common error is to spell gauge as guage.

Suresh

[prasen9]

That being said, it is important to write properly -- this is something I struggle to convey to my students as they are convinced that everything is okay if the technical part is correct,

Actually, technical writing is as much about selling an idea to reviewers even when the work is theoretical. The reviewer has to accept that the theorem being proven is an important one. Thus, unless one makes a major breakthrough on an obviously important problem, writing clearly and motivating the work is very important. My students don't dispute this but they struggle to learn the art. Of course, it is important to write properly.

[suresh]

Prasen,

I was referring to undergraduates. My experience with my graduate students is more or less like yours.

Suresh

[suresh]

I wonder if it rude to point out someone's spelling mistakes in this forum? (I just did in another thread and hence the question.) By the way, I don't consider my English as very good -- I would rate it as passable. I just find that it bothers my eyes when I see something spelt wrong such as challenger being spelt with an a in the place of an e or using loose in the place of lose. The reaction is similar to what I do when somebody slides a piece of chalk on a blackboard. I look forward to your comments!

[Atithee]

I wonder if it rude to point out someone's spelling mistakes in this forum? (I just did in another thread and hence the question.) By the way, I don't consider my English as very good -- I would rate it as passable. I just find that it bothers my eyes when I see something spelt wrong such as challenger being spelt with an a in the place of an e or using loose in the place of lose. The reaction is similar to what I do when somebody slides a piece of chalk on a blackboard. I look forward to your comments!

Was this a trick post, Suresh?

[gbelday]

Lol!