For all intensive purposes. A smaller amount of people. Hopefully. Imply, not infer. Flout, not flaunt. And we haven’t even mentioned moving the ball forward or thinking outside the box.
Some of us are cursed with word radar and some days, when malapropisms and fractured phrases like the above are assaulting our eyes and ears, we feel the world is a room full of long-haired cats and there is no such thing as antihistamine.
I sought support from my colleague, wordsmith Julia Keller. The woman is a walking lexicon and I assumed she would be resolute in her support for my angst.
I was wrong, and the result is this week’s cover story, “Is grammar dead? And does it matter?”
“Any phrase that includes the word ‘proper’ makes me itch, so when I hear ‘proper grammar,’ I get antsy. What does that mean, anyway?” sniffed Julia. One might assume that Julia, laden with the title “cultural critic,” would be a stickler for proper grammar, punctuation and word usage. One might suspect that she relished leaping on unsuspecting souls for their grammatical mistakes.
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Alas, the opposite is true: “I think language is a living river that refuses to be confined to its banks, that is always trying to break free of the narrow channels in which we try to confine it,” explains Julia. “Researching this story reminded me of why I love language so much. Take my money, take all my possessions-but leave me my words, and I’ll survive.”
We anticipate hearing-or is that “expect to hear”-from you on this issue. Either way, here at the Magazine, we are eager for your thoughts.