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The English language in decline?

By Jocelynne Scutt - posted Friday, 14 December 2012


'"We apologise for the inconvenience caused."'

These words are said or penned as if the statement is complete, or that six words rather than five are required. Yet those waiting for the additional words necessary to make sense of what has already been said, wait in vain. The makers of these apologetic messages seem not to understand that English requires only: 'We apologise for the inconvenience.'

Nor do these message makers seem to appreciate that if 'caused' is added, then the sentence is incomplete without the listener or reader being told the cause. Never do we learn 'caused by WHAT'?

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Even where a cause is stated at the outset (as is sometimes so), 'inconvenience caused' continues to be stated, when simple 'inconvenience' not only would suffice, but is obviously correct – rather than as in this message:

'Dear user


'We are currently performing maintenance and updating our account database services, and as a result of this your Accounts must be modernized.

'We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

'Failure to do so within 72 hours will immediately disabled [sic] your account from our database.

'Please complete the details below.

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'Account: ………

'Name: .........

'Password: ...........'

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About the Author

Dr Jocelynne A. Scutt is a Barrister and Human Rights Lawyer in Mellbourne and Sydney. Her web site is here. She is also chair of Women Worldwide Advancing Freedom and Dignity.

She is also Visiting Fellow, Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Jocelynne Scutt

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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