On 24 Feb 2011 at 8:38, Helweg-Larsen, Marie wrote: > It also doesn´t help that it says on all the fast checkout lanes > in Walmart: less than 10 items.
OK, if we're onto pet peeves, I have to mention two which no one seems to care about. The first is "in harm's way". Why use the pedestrian term "in danger" when you can so tritely personify it? I'm afraid that "in danger" has been put in harm's way and is likely to die out entirely. Second is the misuse of "literally", and let me count the ways. It seems now to mean merely "very" rather than to clarify an ambiguity between the actual and the metaphoric. Consider "I literally went into therapy". Ponder "I literally jumped out of my skin". As for my original post on Michael Quinion, a respected authority on language, who dared to use "data" in the singular, note that he defended himself by claiming that this is current "British non- specialist usage". It would not, of course, get past APA, so my question was rhetorical, but language usage does change. Nowadays, it seems pedantic to me to maintain the distinction in conversation and in informal writing. But we can continue to cudgel students about it. (Actually Google's Ngram doesn't support part of my rant. It shows a steady decline in the use of "in danger" from 1800 to about 1940, when it bottoms out (with the hint of a small recovery just recently) So there seems to be no recent threat to its use. "In harm's way" is at much lower frequency, but does appear to have exploded in usage around 1990 (although it may now be falling back from its peak, which is encouraging). Stephen -------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada e-mail: sblack at ubishops.ca --------------------------------------------- --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=8974 or send a blank email to leave-8974-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
