“A(n) historic”
Posted by Philip in Grammar, Pronunciation on July 28th, 2009
It’s bothered me for quite some time when I’ve heard a public speaker (including the president) say the phrase “an historic,” as in, “Today is an historic day.”
As we all know, we use “an” instead of “a” to proceed a vowel sound, so why do so many people say this phrase incorrectly?
As it turns out, in some regions of the country, some people tend to drop the “h” sound on “historic,” making it sound more like “istoric.” If that reads strangely, say it out loud. It kind of sounds right.
The point is, both “a historic” and “an historic” are acceptable proper English, as far as I can tell; however, “a historic” is the more common phrasing.
Lie and Lay
Everyone knows that I am a grammar Nazi. However, I occasionally come across a language situation that presents a challenge that I don’t quite know how to conquer.
This happens to be the case with the verbs “lie” and “lay.” I find these verbs infuriating because they’re already difficult enough to differentiate, but when you use them in the past tense, it becomes an even bigger headache.
As it turns out, “lay” is a transitive verb and “lie” is an intransitive verb. This means that for you to use “lay” properly, you need to be performing an action on something.
Example: “Lay the towel over there.”
On the other hand, if you’re feeling faint, you’d say, “I need to lie down.”
The real confusion, for me at least, comes when you are speaking in the past tense, because for whatever maniacal reason, the past tense of “lie” is “lay.”
Past tense examples: “Last Thursday, I laid the towel on the chair.” (transitive)
“Yesterday, I felt ill so I lay down.” (intransitive)
Future tense examples: “Tomorrow, I will lie down for a nap.” (intransitive)
“Next Wednesday, I will lay the tarp on the dirt.” (transitive)
All of the above examples, as I understand, are correct and proper English.
Quotations
To me, one of the weirdest oddities of English grammar is the rule associated with quotation marks that are near an end-of-the-sentence punctuation mark – a period, exclamation point, or question mark.
Correct: He looked at me and said, “Go sit down.”
Incorrect: He looked at me and said, “Go sit down”.
The punctuation mark always goes inside of the quote. Personally, I don’t understand this rule. Frankly, there are times when this method looks ridiculous in print, or is just flat out confusing.
Example (looks ridiculous): “Have you ever heard the song ‘Folkin’ Around?’” she asked.
Example (flat out confusing): “I love the song ‘Folkin’ Around,’” she said.
Quotes within quotes use single quotes instead of normal, double quotes, so if you’re talking about something like a song title, things start to get confusing. Throw a song title in there that already has an apostrophe or a single quote in it, and things get very confusing for the reader, especially if they were unfamiliar with that song.
The following examples are grammatically incorrect, yet are a lot more readable:
“Have you ever heard the song “Folkin’ Around”?” she asked.
“I love the song “Folkin’ Around”,” she said.
To me, that is a lot more organized and easier on the eyes. Note that I not only changed the internal quote from a single to a double quote, but I also rearranged the order of the punctuation at the end of the statements.
Realism, as opposed to optimism or pessimism
I will begin my quest with a rather simple question that involves some rudimentary math.
“Is the glass half-empty or half-full?”
This question has long been used to separate the optimists from the pessimists. However, what if we actually take a look at the language involved in this sentence? What exactly do the word “empty” and “full” imply?
The word “full” implies a presence of something. A full cup could have 8 ounces (1 cup) of fluid, or it could have more or less, depending on the size of the cup. Arbitrarily, we could assign any number greater than 0 to the word “full” and as long as there’s a cup that has a maximum capacity of that amount of fluid, it would be true. Let’s just say that “full” equals 2.
What about “empty,” though? This word implies nothingness – an absense of fluid, in this case. What else could we assign to this word but the number 0?
Now, some quick math. If a glass is half-full, and full equals 2, then half of 2 is 1. We can derive this from the equation .5 * 2 = 1. So then, what is half-empty? If empty equals 0, then half-empty is still 0, as proven by the equation 0.5 * 0 = 0.
What am I getting at here? Simply, the phrase “half-empty” makes no sense. You can say empty, a quarter empty, a third empty – it doesn’t matter, it all would technically boil down to the fact that the glass is empty.
You could say that a glass is halfway to empty, and that would make sense. By adding the word “to,” you’ve included a preposition in the phrase, and a preposition acts as a modifier to a noun, verb, or adjective, and in this case, “to” is a modifier of the latter. Thus, unless I’m incorrect, by modifying the adjective “empty,” the word “to” changes the meaning, and at the very least, makes more sense than “half-empty.”
Purpose
For the longest time, I’ve wanted to create a secondary blog to my main blog. I wanted this secondary blog to be an exploration into a subject that I’m not extremely proficient in (ie, anything but computers and technology), but something that I am interested in.
Then, today, it came to me – grammar and the articulate use of language. I know, it sounds weird, but it makes sense. I write a good bit more than the average person does, both for fun and for profit. I find the usage of language very interesting, and I love using words or phrases that usually refer to one thing to refer to something completely unrelated; for example, “he didn’t particularly care for her brand of love.”
I also love how punctuation and sentence structure can affect the meaning of a thought so incredibly much.
“I like bread, tomatoes, macaroni, and cheese.”
“I like bread, tomatoes, maraconi and cheese.”
In the first example, the person would enjoy both macaroni and perhaps also a piece of cheese. In the second example, the person would enjoy some Easy Mac. I was actually researching the proper usage of commas when I decided on this subject.
So, without further ado, welcome to my new blog. I hope that you don’t find it too boring.