Sunday 11 January 2015

YOU DONE GOOD- MODERN TERMINOLOGY

Oh dear, I cringe every time I read "You done good" or "I done good" in contemporary fiction. Is this the way people speak?

Yes, I think it is because I have heard it over and over. It's all very well for the pundits to say that language changes over time, but this is ridiculous! Bad grammar, bad spelling - yes, I am guilty of that too - but never in a million years would I say to someone - "You done good!"  For those who don't know what I am talking about it's - "You've done WELL!" or as I have heard lately, the dropping of the "ly" as in "He did perfect."

I'll be back to finish this blog as soon as I find out whether Roger Federer or Milos Raonic wins the Brisbane International Tennis!

Okay, so The Fed won and it's now Wednesday night and the commentators are working on Rafa Nadal and a young Aussie kid, Omar someone playing the new Fast tennis. The opinionated young man who is explaining a point has just used a term I hate - "to the get go"!  "Get go"????? What about "from the start"? Perhaps that is not "baseball worn back to front" hip speak!!

Another woman on TV - who should know better - said tonight, "It works more effective!" I can't remember what she was talking about but the tendency to cut the "ly" off words is expanding rapidly as I have mentioned earlier on this blog.

I have never been able to come to terms with starting a sentence with "and" or "but," however this has become commonplace in modern fiction. Having done quite a bit of Beta Reading, I have discovered that this is endemic among young women devoted to chicklit. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR. The worst of it is I find myself doing it too  :(  Occasionally. Rarely.

Coupled with this deplorable habit, is another - the idea that if the book is written in short sentences it will be more exciting!! Hellooooooooooooo? I was always taught that short sentences raise the tension and that this method should be kept for that. Imagine reading a book where every sentence consists of no more than around six words!!

The final whine I have today is the use of dashes as punctuation! There is a strong tendency among many to use a dash instead of a comma and the penchant for using brackets to enclose what should be normal script, is horrendous!

What is left of my mind, "boggles."











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