Haphazard studies in the English language (Continued from September).pdf

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extracted text: THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL Octo, LUZON STEVEDORING COMPANY, INC. Haphazard Studies in the English Language (Continued from September) baptism. Pronounced as two syllables, bap' tizm; not three, bap'tiz-um, nor two, bab'tizm. be. To be grammatically correct, the case of an apposite personal pronoun following the verb “to be’' should agree with its subject. We should always say, “It is I, you are he,” not “It is me, you are him.” Colloquial excep tions are frequent, but the rule is plain and should be strictly observed. beastly. An English colloquialism occasionally heard in America. “Beastly weather” is a single example of phrases used by people of all classes in England, but regarded in the United States as coarse. “Beastly drunk” is said by some writers to be defensible, while by others it is regarded as a libel on the beasts. beat. Do not use this word for the more ex pressive word “defeat.” be back. “I’ll be here again,” “I’ll return,” or “I’ll come back again,” are all preferable to “I’ll come back again,” are all preferable to to “I’ll be back,” a common colloquialism which should be avoided. been to. Pronounce been, bin, short i. The “to” is superfluous in “where have you been to?” “Been to home” should be “Been at home.” begin, commence. The preference should always be given to the former, though the two words have the same meaning. “Begin” is of Anglo-Saxon origin and is the better word. The use of “commence” is often evidence of affectation. Lightering Marine Contractors Towboats Launches Waterboats Shipbuilders and Provisions We will share all our profits with you! Concentrate your shopping Buy it at our store and save money Children learn thrift by saving coupons! Coupons with all cash and all provincial C. O. D. orders! Beck’s begins a new era. 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Soon your coupons are equal to one or two pesos—five, ten, twenty, a hundred—and all just as good at our store as any money in the wide world. BECK’S-escolta We always have what you want 'ESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1929 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 19 “the same persons,” says Godfrey Turner, “who habitually discard the word ‘many’ when they have a chance of gloryfying in ‘numerous’ have concurred in giving the cold shoulder to ‘begin.’. . . ‘Directly I commence to speak, every one commences to look at me,’ said a mincing miss at a suburban ‘at home’. There are mincing misses of the male sex in authorship who are always ‘commencing to.’ Female authors are seldom caught at this feminine weakness of phrase.” “In the beginning” God made heaven and earth. Note the weakness of a change to “In the commencement.” According to Crabb, “begin” is opposed to end, “commence” to complete. A person begins a thing with a view of ending it; he commences a thing with a view of completing it. Begin is used for either things or persons, commence for persons only. A word begins with a particular letter, a man commences his career. beginner. It is incorrect and displays ignor ance to speak of “a new beginner.” A begin ner cannot be anything but new to his work. Omit the “new.” being. Many writers have labored strenuously When Telegraphing Use The Radiogram Route WORLD .DE IRELESS RADIO CORPORATION OF THE PHILIPPINES 9 PLAZA MORAGA I 2-26-01 Phones: < 2-26-02 I 2-26-03 to prove the illegitimacy of the expression “is being,” as in “The house is being built,” but it is now well established, and appears to have filled a void. “Is being” first appeared as an English passive, corresponding to the progressive form in the active voice, late in the 18th or early in the 19th century, and gained currency chiefly through the newspaper press. Its opponents, who were many, argued that it was pure invention; that there is no progressive form of the verb “to be,” and no need of it; hence, that there is no such expression in English as “is being.” They pointed to the following among other examples of literary usage: “The books are selling.”—Allen’s Gram mar. “The fortress was building,”—Washington Irving. “An attempt is making in the English Par liament.”—Daniel Webster. “The church now erecting in the city of New York.”—North American Review. These quotations are of interest as showing the void—the need now supplied by “is being,’ which was characterized by the grammarian Always Open Goold Brown as “one of the most absurd and monstrous innovations ever thought of.” Another writer said that “is being done” was “a new-fangled and most uncouth solecism, substituted for the good old English idiom ‘is doing’—an absurd periphrasis driving out a pointed and pithy turn of the English lan guage.” Richard Grant White devoted many pages of his interesting work, “Words and Their Uses,” to his protest against “is being,” which, said he, “about seventy or eighty years ago began to affront the eye, torment the ear, and assault the common sense of the speaker of plain and idiomatic English.” He concludes that “it can hardly be that such an incon gruous and ridiculous form of speech as ‘is being done’ was contrived by a man who, by any stretch of the name, should be included among grammarians.” In spite of these fulminations of the learned and the conservative, the locution “is being” came to stay. At first regarded as an awk ward neologism, usage has accustomed and even reconciled us to it, and the imperfects passive, “is being built, is being done,” etc., pass unquestioned in modern English and American literature. Indeed Dr. Fitzedward Hall has shown that such compound participial forms have been used by good writers on both sides of the Atlantic for more than a century. “The deviser of our modern imperfects pas sive,” says Dr. Hall, “is, more than likely, as undiscoverable as the name of the valiant antediluvian who first tasted an oyster.” As early as 1795 Robert Southey wrote of “a fellow whose uttermost upper grinder is being torn out by the roots by a mutton-fisted barber,” and Charles Lamb speaks of “a man who is being strangled.” Many of the best of living writers employ “is being” freely, and having regard for the logic of facts the conclu sion must be reached that the once obnoxious neologism has firmly established itself in the English language and its literature. This does not, however, deny the right of the mo dern speaker to say “the house is building” if he prefers that locution to “is being built.” A pronounced difference is seen between such phrases as “is growing” and “is being grown,” the one indicating development from within and the other the watchful care of the husbandman. “Is feeding” and “is being fed” further illustrate the difference of signi fication. belong. “Do you belong?” is a common col loquialism used when the subject of conversa tion is of some particular organization, etc. Regarded as a colloquialism, and as elliptical —“to the society, etc.” being understood, there is little to urge against this absolute use of “belong.” Some writers, however, think it objectionable. belongings. An old English word recently restored to good usage after a period of disuse. Sometimes applied by the head of a family to the members dependent on him. beside, besides. These words are interchange able in the meanings of over and above, dis tinct from, although besides is more frequently used in this sense; as, “There were learned men besides these.” Beside means by or at the side of, on one side of; as, “He sat beside me.” Also, aside from, apart from, or out of; as, “Paul, thou art beside thyself”. Besides specially means moreover, in addi tion; as, “Besides, the gentleman is married.'' Generally speaking, it may be said that the tendency of present usage is to use “beside” only as a preposition with the original mean ing, by the side of, or with the cognate mean ing, aside from, out of; while “besides” is used in the adverbial sense (moreover) and in the remaining prepositional sense. bestial. Often mispronounced. Should be best'yal, with short e. be that as it will. Should be “be that as it may.” better. Erroneously used for “more” in phrases like “better than a mile,” which is incorrect, between. Often misused for among. It is strictly applied only to two things, parties or persons, while among is used in reference to a greater number. We say, “Between James and John,” but “Among the apostles.” IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL
Date: 1929
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