atw: Re: This does not make sense
- From: Howard Silcock <howard.silcock@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 21 May 2013 10:15:46 +1000
It's a common phenomenon that every generation thinks the next one is
letting language go to the dogs. But relax, Bob - your examples are all
instances of a linguistic usage that is known well enough to have a name:
'transferred epithet' (or sometimes 'hypallage'). If you search the
Internet (or try http://grammar.about.com/od/fh/g/hypallageterm.htm),
you'll find examples going back to Shakespeare.
I associate this particularly with P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster, who
often used phrases like 'I lit a nonchalant cigarette' and 'I sat in the
bath soaping a meditative foot' writing as the narrator in the 'Jeeves'
books.
Howard
On 21 May 2013 06:45, Bob Trussler <bob.trussler@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> We all moan about the falling standards in grammar these days, but
> something strange is happening. Forget the standards, as some things
> don’t even make sense.
>
> An ABC TV newsreader said “a high day of drama”.
> Suely, it should be “a day of high drama”? Maybe the writer was a bit
> high when they wrote this.
>
> Later in the same news broadcast, we were told about thieves in Cannes who
> stole “the safe in a hotel room packed with jewels”.
> Why would anyone steal the safe when the room was packed with jewels? Now
> I am really confused.
>
> Then I relaxed with some good news as I read about “a suspected boat of 83
> asylum seekers …”
> At least the asylum seekers had been accepted as genuine and only the boat
> was a suspect. I am still wondering what would the boat be suspected of.
> Maybe someone suspected that it was a boat but wasn’t sure.
>
> Bob Trussler
>
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