Topic: English Usage

10-second review: What should be done about complex usage problems? “If a word is rarely used in spoken English and if the rules that govern its use are so convoluted that they make the average language user beg for mercy, that word should be expelled, excommunicated from the language. Whom is such a word…. There is ample precedent for banishing words from the language. Thee and thou left us years ago, leaving us with only you, an excellent replacement.”

Source: D Soles. English Journal. (May 2005), 34. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Comment: The professor in my History of the English Language course, made the same point. He also suggested that “lie” and “Lay” will go the way of “lay.” Most people have learned to avoid using “lie” and “lay,” knowing that they won’t use it correctly. In fact, the reporters and anchors at Action News, WPVI, in Philadelphia, butchered the usage so frequently that their supervisors have told them to avoid it, to write and speak around “lie” and “lay.” How do I know? Because in the last year I have not heard “lie” or “lay” used at all during the local news telecasts. Good advice to everyone else who is not sure which of these two usages to apply. RayS.