It is what you say AND how you say it

At an advertising agency where I produced retail advertising exclusively, the owner referred to me jokingly as “his chief vulgarian”. Or should that have been “vulgar Ian”?

This was probably because I understood the vulgate, the everyday informal use of common language, and applied it tactically to the desired section of the market. I talked to the potential consumers in their everyday speech style, a characteristic which was the style of that agency and which gained it enormous success (and hatred!).

Speech types often can be an identifier of the uncaring or the thoughtless, particularly the irritating, nasal style of dialect where the colloquial triumphs. Many disdain anything other than the constant clumsy vernacular which bonds them to their peers.

Yet informal speech is extremely worthwhile and widespread across our society where it fulfils a need for easy spontaneity.

Many folk adopt a speech style if that manner of speaking is considered germane to their occupation: the commentator screaming a sporting call; the rigidly formal idiom of the policeman; the euphemistic dialect of the bureaucrat; the flimflam of the politician; the sing-song announcements on PA systems.

All these are a form of branding, yet all are habitual and unthinking.

Change in verbal fashion is a fact of life, therefore education and understanding about one’s language is vital for good speech and clarity of thought. You have to know the rules to be able to break them.

The declining standard of English teaching over recent years has the effect of its being no longer usual for students to enhance their basic linguistic expression. They seldom understand the nature, structure and rules of their language well enough to do much more than jump the examination hurdle. The problem is that the hurdle’s bar has been lowered!

Near enough is considered to be good enough, and those like myself who comment adversely on present day usage and style, are often regarded as pedants.

Many of us, who studied English thoroughly in those bygone years when grammar learning included parsing and analysis, often choose to use its vast range of nuances for the sheer enjoyment of proficiency as a cultural art form.

Is that just an ego trip, or a wish that good speech might spread to others?

For many years words, and the way they were delivered, were my tools of trade. Directors, actors, writers, and all manner of verbal artists, employ an understanding and skill with speech to convey the closest possible communication of thought and emotion.

Compare the present unconcern for the proper speaking of English, with a sportsman’s (woman’s) striving for excellence in their sport. Would near-enough be considered good-enough there?

A lazy pronunciation habit gaining prevalence is the rising terminal, the ending of a sentence with an upward inflection. Its effect is to suggest doubt; to question the truth of what has just been said.

Take, the example of the announcement, “Sunday’s game will be really (rising tone) good”!

This way of ending the sentence suggests that, “Sunday’s game will be really good”? There is a strong element of uncertainty on the part of the speaker; is there some doubt that the game actually will be good?

An effective orator seldom ends a sentence on a rising inflection, unless deliberately to introduce a view of uncertainty. In fact, a competent speaker instead may use body language, or dramatic gestures, to re-inforce a statement.

Remember Nikita Kruschev banging his shoe forcefully on the lectern at a UN forum to make his point? Powerful stuff!

Think of how ludicrous classic dramatic phrases would sound if delivered with a rising terminal:

“To be, or not to be - that is the (rising tone) question”.

“Never in the field of human conflict, has so much been owed by so many to so (rising tone) few”.

Although this habit is widespread, the social trend seems to be for this way of ending a sentence to be used mainly among the young, probably due to peer influence. But the habit has spread rapidly to society’s leaders also. It is common to hear politicians, business leaders, even media presenters, fall into this error of unthinking speech delivery, leaving the listeners in some doubt about how to resolve the sentences.

Couple this with frequent “err”s, and “umm”s mid-sentence, mix in a few “like”s, end the sentence with a series of grammatically unconnected words and pauses; put vocal stress on prepositions instead of nouns; for example say that “the fireman raced TO the blaze”, finish a rambling, incoherent sentence with a “yeah”, and one is left wondering if the thought processes are just as flimsy as the speech.

It is not really hard to speak competently - it just takes some practice.

Winston Churchill said, when commenting on the proper use of English, “ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I shall not put”. Dryly, he made a point about the ability to express an idea in a way appropriate to the situation, a way that can come only from an understanding of the language’s rules and structure.

To listen to these sorts of habitual blunders is often as funny as listening to announcer wannabes on public address systems, using a sing-song tone in their very formulaic deliveries, often ending on a rising inflexion.

Listen, also, as speakers inform listeners that a particular event will happen in “one ourwah”.

Smile patronisingly as speakers add and stress inappropriate word supplements to verbs: “we DO have a wide range of goods in stock”. Is there any doubt that you did?

As I mentioned earlier, you have to know the rules to be able to break them, but it is important also to be flexible in speaking properly. This includes punctuation. There can be a considerable change of meaning in the insertion, or placement, of a punctuation mark: “What is this thing called, love.” “What! Is thing called love”?

Being able to define what is “proper” is essential. With a language as broad and subtle as ours, its uses are enormous, and it is important to speak in the way that suits best the listener.

The only way to understand what is proper is to have been taught it in depth, and correctly. Then you can break whatever rule you choose if it will add strength to what you wish to say.

Yes, English is certainly changing, so try to keep up with it!

I, myself, personally, hope that you avoid the perils of tautology, rising terminals, trying for more betterer than the worstest grammar, and that the groundswell of clichéd English misuse will ebb.

Good on yez!