Ian, aren't you being a bit harsh? In spoken English, and especially in newsreading cadence, emphasis conveys something about importance, impact and association. Example:
"ADD some oil" the listener is commanded to execute a transitive verb, and the oil is non-specific.
"Add some OLIVE oil" the listener is directed to understand the specificity of olive, and that another oil is out. SUMP oil is not a substitute.
"add some olive OIL" the listener is alerted that a different part of the olive is not a valid substitute. Don't add an olive stone.
I don't necessarily like "advisory" or "in-store" either, but surely they are accepted neologisms.
I seem to remember my mother blued the wash in the copper, and nobody thought that was weird.
John At 21:49 6/04/2011, Ian Gabriel wrote:
Hi,I've also noticed the change in the spoken "melody". There seems to be a current trend is to use the American stress on the adjective rather than the stress on the noun, which is more typically Australian English. "Add some OLIVE oil" instead of "add some olive OIL".My recent efforts to learn German included the necessary emphasis on the melody. It's part of what makes the sentence intelligible without having to speak very slowly and with exaggerated enunciaton. The combination of the pauses and the inflections makes the speaker easier to understand. When it's not in tune with our expectation, it can be hard to listen to. It's the aural equivalent of reading text with spelling mistakes. We have to focus on the medium instead of the message.Another Americanism that's creeping in also, is the loss of the nouns. We can now use adjectives on their own. The government department issues an advisory (something). You can find the sale item in-store.The gerund has almost vanished also. Now we don't need to use the noun form of the verb, we just use the verb. A race car, or better still two verbs: a swim meet.I'm certainly in the dinosaur club, because I think that the correct grammatical stuff makes it all work. It's easier to read and it's definitely easier to translate. I had long discussions in Germany about the common use of the "the productive system" to mean "the production system". Yes, productive is an adjective, but in this case we need a noun qualifier to define which system it is, not what its qualities are. The system may well be productive, but which one is it? There is a training system and a production system. Oddly enough Germans are experts at concatenating nouns, it's the way their grammar works, but when being pedantic about English it gets harder.Oops I've strayed off topic back to the previous dinosaur thread.Anyway, I have noticed that on some recent projects away from the software industry, that it's not all so bad. Conventional engineering graduates can actually write reasonably well. I think that they must still produce a lot of essays as part of their courses. Perhaps software engineers text their way through university!Alas print journalists aren't much better lately. Obviously no proof reading is required if you have a 500,000-word spell checker. There homonyms don't phase me at awl.Cheers, Ian Gabriel ----- Original Message ----- From: <mailto:beckyakasha@xxxxxxxxxxx>Rebecca Caldwell To: <mailto:austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>tech writers group Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2011 6:22 PM Subject: atw: Re: Dinosaurs and punctuationIn another life, I wrote copy for television auto-cues, and I would implement the 'comma for breath' system, with great results.Years later, I used the same system for writing telemarketing scripts, and was told that it was genius! This coming from a 'seasoned' audiovisual copywriter. I guessed his age at about 24 at the time.I too get annoyed hearing out of breath or nonsensical sentences uttered on air. I often wonder if they even read the material out loud beforehand, or if it is simply that they do not understand the subject matter?Rebecca ---------- From: rhonda.bracey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2011 16:13:31 +0800 Subject: atw: Re: Dinosaurs and punctuationThis is not just an issue with young newsreaders. A weather guy on Perth's Channel 7 used to do the same thing and it drove me mad listening to him! He retired a few years ago and is well into his 60s. Nice personality, but terrible phrasing and pausing. He grew up in an era where those things mattered so I'm not sure what happened to him and why he never changed even after many years in the public eye (surely someone in the station or from the general public must have complained about it).Rhonda Rhonda Bracey rhonda.bracey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <http://www.cybertext.com.au/>http://www.cybertext.com.auCyberText Newsletter/blog: <http://cybertext.wordpress.com/>http://cybertext.wordpress.comAuthor-it Certified Consultant ----------From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Christine KentSent: Wednesday, 6 April 2011 3:59 PM To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: atw: Dinosaurs and punctuationI have just made another observation regarding the problem of whether ?our grammar? is defunct.I was listening to a very young newsreader and finding her uncomfortable to listen to and difficult to understand, so I paid attention. Something was ?wrong? with the ?rhythm? of what she was saying. It is something I have wondered about with younger people ? why I can find some of them really difficult to follow, but I have never really paid attention before now.I had a teacher in year 12 who, instead of teaching us grammar, told us to put commas where we wanted the reader to take a short breath and a full stop where we wanted them to take a longer breath. In effect our punctuation told the reader when to breathe. It?s an excellent system, even if it is technically incorrect at times.This newsreader was putting all her pauses in the wrong place. She would run-on at the end of sentences with no pause at all, and put short or long pauses in the middle of clauses.I struggled to follow what she was saying. Did she follow it herself? Was she reading for meaning or just reading words? Is there some internal logic comprehended by other young people? Or does no-one care anymore whether we/they understand what is said or not?Someone must be researching this. Christine
John P Maizels Mobile: +61-412-576-888 Media Versatilist: no problem too complex SMPTE Director of International Sections www smpte org au Chair, Media Industry Technologist Certification Ltd www mitc tv
