Dying Word Classes and Other Social Ills

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Grammar Crackers

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As I was enjoying the daily news loop on CNN earlier this month, I found myself struck with disbelief. One reporter described traffic flow on the famous Michigan Avenue as “moving along pretty well, pretty steady.”

I’m sure some of you just sighed in disapproval.

I could understand if it was an American Idol contestant or professional athlete who, overwhelmed by the joy of victory, fumbled some words. But, I see no reason an obviously articulate news reporter—on CNN—should fail to properly employ a simple adverb.

In her defense, I doubt any of us talk in accordance with English’s basic parts of speech all the time. Indeed, we could all stand to revisit the part-of-speech tagging exercises we learned in grade school. I commonly hear adults commit grammatical errors many elementary school students I’ve met could correct. As a matter of fact, our Head of State habitually misuses the articles a and an.

Perhaps, I shouldn’t harp too much. English is a difficult language to command; there are several varieties, and all of them are constantly appropriating new words into an already immense lexicon. Mistakes abound. Even our greatest writers need editors. Thus, the United States is replete with a largely monolingual population, notoriously ignorant of its main method of communication.

In this light, berating non-native English speakers in the United States for their lack of language skills seems down right absurd.

May our attention to what we mean to say, what we actually say, and what we just don’t know increase steadily.