Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1870-02-02
LINGUISTIC SINNERS.
The Common Crimes of Conversation.

-tsf From the Old and New for February.
There are the careless people, those ''whC
! know the right, and yet the wrong pursue.
They plunge recklessly on without thought
for the words they use; their sentences
abound with exclamations and expletlve;
more expressive than choice. Their slang
! phrases are an offense to cultivated ears
and they exhaust the superlatives of the
language on the most ordinary occasions
1t is they who preface every sen
tence, even on trivial topics, with,
ter p' "Gracious r' F'Good Lord T.
Thunder r' "You bet !" ''No, you
don'tr' In their vocabulary, "Oh !" 'sIn-
deed, yes !' "Well r ''And-ah p are as
thickly strewn as leaves in Vallambrosa.-
/ With them a funeral is 'iolly," prayer
meeting 'funny," an ordinary performance
! is '-first-rate," the lowest round on the lad
der of beauty is 'real pretty and their
indiscriminate admiration is expressed by
the much-abused epithets, "splendid,
beautiful, magnificent, superb, bewitching,
| fascinating. charming, delicious, exquisite, "
etc. Any violation of law belonging to
their code is ''shemeful;" refusal to con-
form to their wishes is ''horrid mean;" a
common cold is terrible" and headache
is beyond endurance" They are always
| roasted or ''1fOZ6n, or ''melteQ, JQ6M
friends are beatifed with every virtue; and
their enemies are the offscourings of the
race. They so completely exhaust the
language on common, occasions that no
words are left to give expressions to their
deeper feelings.
A second class includes those who vio-
late the laws of etymology. They have
been thoroughly trained in the grammar of
the language, and yet refuse to be regulat-
ed by its precepts. This class is large
one, and includes among its audacious sin
ners:-
l. Those who use the objective case for
the nominative; as, ''It is me-" for ''It is
:" ut is her, for cit is she;" sit is us, +"
for "It is we.''
2. Those who use the nominative case
for the objective; as, Between you and /, 3"
for Between you and me-" Like you and
1, for 'Like you and me-" 81 know who
mean, for Il know whom you mean,"
3. Those whose subjects and verbs do
not agree IN number and person; as, ''Says
L" for ''Say l." You was," for You
were;;" MY jeet's cold" for "My feet are
eold; There's thirty" for "There are
thirty"
4. Those who use the indicative mood for
the subjunctive; ''If I was you" for eff /
were you.
5. Those who use the present tense for
the past; Il see you yesterday" for Il saw
you yesterday"
6. Those who use the intransitive verb
for the transitive; 'If he is mind to- for
If he has a mind to-"
T. Those who use incorrectly the much
abused verbs sit and lie; az, 81 am going to
lay down." for Il am going to lie down."
Il lald down this morning." for 81 Law
down this morning." 81 shall set there"
tor I shnll sit there"
8. Those who use the adverb for the
adjective; as, f'She looks beautifully for
''She looks beautiful; ;.or it's opposite, "She
walks graceful, y for ''She walks gracefully" ,"
8. Those who use plural adjective with
singular noun; as, "Those kind" for
''That kind" six pair, )" for "Six pairs"
l9. Those who use the compound rel tive
Tor the conjunction; as, 81 do not know but
what will, for 81 do not know but that [
will"
IL. Those who use the objective case af-
ter the conjunction "than;'' as, HE knows
more than me, y for ''He knows more than
L"
II. Those who use double negatives; as
mo, you don neither" for ''No you don't
either"
13. Those who use the wrong proposition:
as, Different to-" for Different from;''
'In.regard of, for ''With regard TO-"
IA. Those who use the Superlative degree
for the comparative; as, ''The oldest of the
two, for ''The older of the two"