How do we communicate?

Newspaper headlines can be an excellent source of ambiguity and amusement. This is partly due to lack of space and having to convey a message in very few words, but sometimes I wonder whether there are sub-editors with a wicked streak. One classic example of this came in the following headline in a local newspaper:

Police found drunk in shop window
 
Duck59 said:
Newspaper headlines can be an excellent source of ambiguity and amusement. This is partly due to lack of space and having to convey a message in very few words, but sometimes I wonder whether there are sub-editors with a wicked streak. One classic example of this came in the following headline in a local newspaper:

Police found drunk in shop window
Click to expand...

I've always been fond of "Police Appeal to Pop Fans".
 
Duck59 said:
Newspaper headlines can be an excellent source of ambiguity and amusement. This is partly due to lack of space and having to convey a message in very few words, but sometimes I wonder whether there are sub-editors with a wicked streak. One classic example of this came in the following headline in a local newspaper:

Police found drunk in shop window
Click to expand...
Appeared in a local paper
Dead body found in local graveyard, police are looking into how it came to be there.

Where better to find a dead body?
 
One memorable headline in the early 1970s needs a little background detail. Crystal Palace, a London football club, had a Scottish player called Gerry Queen, who got sent off in one particularly rumbustious match. The heading for the report in The Guardian the following day read:

Queen in brawl at Palace
 
Here's another one that annoys me. It's a particular favourite of football commentators and pundits. I refer to the invented word "laxadaisical." One may be lax or one may be lackadaisical, but not a combination of the two. This is guaranteed to make me shout at the television.
 
Duck59 said:
Here's another one that annoys me. It's a particular favourite of football commentators and pundits. I refer to the invented word "laxadaisical." One may be lax or one may be lackadaisical, but not a combination of the two. This is guaranteed to make me shout at the television.
Click to expand...

I also sometimes scream at the television .. grammatical blunders (especially in the subjunctive) or new words that make me shiver and not above all not communicate anything, just a fad to try to be cooler. Our language provides the subjunctive. Many do not use it, and use in its place the present indicative or even worse the imperfect. A havoc of the Italian language. Example: if I had done that thing, I would have had less problems. (se avessi fatto...avrei avuto..) Perfect sentence grammatically.
Horror: if I would have done that, I had less problems. (se avrei fatto,avevo meno problemi..) :cry:
In the English translation does not make much but I assure you that the use of the subjunctive is often a disaster at least as much as talking (or worse writing) only to the immediate past. But if I tell you about something that happened 20 years ago, use the remote past. It exists! And opening the vocabulary from time to time to refresh the language would not be bad. I do it. When I have a doubt, vocabulary is a great help.
But there is another thing that drives me crazy. I state that I really like the English language and I try as I can to improve myself .. but too often words in English replace the Italian because it is very cool to do so. Example: this appointment is pending/ questo appuntamento è pending... ok, I know what pending means but in Italian it is said to be "sospeso/in attesa".
Or even: c'è un gap nel sistema, ora faccio un check e poi ti do un updating face to face. (There is a gap in the system but now I check and then I give you an update face to face"..no really, are we kidding?
And then they are the first people who write badly in Italian. How many times I read work emails with "another" (in italian "un altro") written with the apostrophe. In Italian "un altro" is without apostrophe, because in masculine. The feminine "un'altra" is with the apostrophe. And they are not empty or distractions, it is precisely lack of knowledge.
But they know Gap and Pending words..
 
Last edited:
MypinchofItaly said:
And then they are the first people who write badly in Italian. How many times I read work emails with "another" (in italian "un altro") written with the apostrophe. In Italian "un altro" is without apostrophe, because in masculine. The feminine "un'altra" is with the apostrophe. And they are not empty or distractions, it is precisely lack of knowledge.
Click to expand...

Your post got me thinking about masculine and feminine nouns. In English we don't have that at all so to me it always seems strange. I did learn Latin at school though, which of course uses gendered nouns. There is a habit in English of talking about cars, bikes, boats etc. as 'she' - but the words themseves are genderless.

My question. Can the use of masculine and feminine be in any way sexist?
 
morning glory said:
Your post got me thinking about masculine and feminine nouns. In English we don't have that at all so to me it always seems strange. I did learn Latin at school though, which of course uses gendered nouns. There is a habit in English of talking about cars, bikes, boats etc. as 'she' - but the words themseves are genderless.

My question. Can the use of masculine and feminine be in any way sexist?
Click to expand...

yes indeed it was one of the first things I noticed studying English and that often confuses us Italians because we have a precise distinction between nouns and male and female adjectives.
I think the distinction between masculine and feminine is due to a distinction between two genres that are however already distinct in nature, feminine gender and masculine gender. Starting from the Latin in which the declensions already gave a classification between feminine, masculine and neutral.
 
MypinchofItaly said:
:laugh: Oh my, paninis ?! But they are Italian shops/cafè?
Click to expand...

I'm relieved to say that I have never seen an Italian place using that term.

This reminds me of a story that a former colleague told me. He was born and brought up in Edinburgh of Italian parents. They were on holiday in Italy when he was about twelve and his father was driving in the countryside. They stopped to ask the way to somewhere and it was a young lad of about six who helped them. The father turned round to his son, who was in the back seat and said, "You should be ashamed. He speaks better Italian than you do!"
 
Duck59 said:
I'm relieved to say that I have never seen an Italian place using that term.
Me too :D

This reminds me of a story that a former colleague told me. He was born and brought up in Edinburgh of Italian parents. They were on holiday in Italy when he was about twelve and his father was driving in the countryside. They stopped to ask the way to somewhere and it was a young lad of about six who helped them. The father turned round to his son, who was in the back seat and said, "You should be ashamed. He speaks better Italian than you do!"
Click to expand...

:laugh: very funny..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom