a reader’s addition

From a longtime correspondent (an American):

“Had to laugh about your cringing at the use of ‘gift’ as verb. My peeves: the overuse of ‘around’… as in ‘let’s develop a policy around the problem of student retention’; ‘we formed a committee around the topic of merit pay’–instead of ‘concerning’ or ‘about’ or ‘on the matter of’ or any number of other possibilities. And while I’m at it: the use of ‘conversation’ in place of ‘discussion’ (the compound, ‘conversation around,’ driving me completely ’round the bend). And finally, the widespread use of ‘issues’ (‘she has issues with her professor’) in place of problems, disagreements,… And don’t get me started on the compound construction: ‘she had _issues around_ her professor’s grading practices…'”

I have issues around gifting.

But seriously, I try not to be bothered by any of these things too much, and let history take its course. Some of these little annoyances vanish, but others become second nature for the following generations.

I’m afraid I’ve already internalized “issues” in the sense denounced above, though I can’t remember when that unfortunate event occurred. But I’m certainly old enough to remember the first appearance of “like” as a ubiquitous particle in spoken American English. That was the famous “Valley Girl” invasion of the early 1980’s. And I’m probably right at the generational borderline where it annoys me terribly and yet I sometimes fall into it nonetheless. It’s nearly 30 years old, still being used in exactly the same fashion as when it first appeared, and I’m afraid it’s here to stay. Future generations may think nothing of it. And in all fairness, plenty of world languages have words that fulfill a similar function.

Go back and look at any past book or essay on English usage, and you’ll be startled to discover all sorts of similar examples: words being denounced as pretentious affectations that over time have become an obvious and accepted part of the landscape. I’ve mentioned being amused by Raymond Chandler’s annoyance at the recent use of a pretentious foreign word to describe scrawlings in public toilets. That pretentious foreign word was graffiti. By now, of course, we all learn that word at age 7 or 8, and it simply is the accepted word for what it describes. I’m afraid “gifting” is already headed down that road, so I’ll try not to let it bother me anymore. Which isn’t to say that I will ever use it that way.

Another thing I don’t like, which is also here to stay, is when people make declarative statements using the tone usually reserved for questions. You know what I’m talking about; it’s impossible to portray in written words. It’s meant to be modest and conciliatory, but I find it to be a tension-raiser instead. Some people do it approximately 80% of the time, and I find myself unconsciously avoiding those people even when they are nice.

In philosophical circles, I find it annoying when people say AIRistotle. But enough about language annoyances.