English debate should focus on proper use

There is more political hullabaloo going on about whether to make English the nation’s official language than there is academic attention to our growing misuse of English, period.

The notion of protecting English as our language has been tossed around since the nation’s founding – and since the men of that time spoke and wrote such eloquent English, the likes of which are not read or heard today.

John Adams, when he was president, lobbied in 1780 for the creation of a national academy to refine, correct and improve the English language. That did not happen for political reasons (some lawmakers saw it as a Royalist attempt to define personal behavior), but we surely could use such an academy now. Our use of proper English is being trampled by our abuse of the language.

As examples, in the past few weeks these comments have been broadcast on prime-time television by speakers who should – and probably do – know better:

The night after New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was re-elected, a professor at a Louisiana university explained on national TV why Nagin defeated Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu. The reason she gave was lost after she said: “The difference between he and Mayor Nagin …”

Then, the fateful scene at the start of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore when all attention focused on Kentucky Derby winner – and Triple Crown hopeful – Barbaro, who broke through his gate before the official start, then stunned the crowds by breaking down a few hundred yards into the race with serious injuries to his right rear leg. An excited commentator declared Barbaro “busted out” of his stall.

One of the best anchors on television, Jim Lehrer of PBS, has an annoying habit of asking a learned guest his or her opinion of a particular event or newsmaker story by saying, “How do you come down on this?”

A regular reader from Appleton, Maine, says he is annoyed as well by the misuse of our beloved English. “Another one that bothers me,” he says, “is ‘try and’ when it should be ‘try to.’ And it used to be that you added ‘ly’ to an adjective to make an adverb. Now, there seems to be no such thing as an adverb. Example: ‘The machine worked beautiful.’

“I place the blame for this sorry state of affairs squarely on the English teachers,” he writes. “Many years ago the American Association of English Teachers passed a resolution saying that grammar, spelling and punctuation were unimportant; it was the thought behind the writing that was important. This resulted in what was called ‘holistic scoring’ of written work. This has been a disaster.”

This man’s concluding paragraph is a lesson to remember:

“I am a former physics teacher, and I red-lined every English error in every paper I ever corrected. If a science term or name was misspelled, no credit was given until it was corrected. In no time at all the errors dwindled to zero! I once received a term paper entitled ‘Isaac Nootin.’ Needless to say, I did not accept it.”