Grammar that makes you cringe

[Ian H]

Fry slams BBC 'culture of fear'

might be quite hard for the BBC to report without the quotation marks.

In some cases I think it's a deliberate distancing of the BBC from the suggestion being made by whoever it is quoting.  

But things like

Red Planet 'may not be lifeless'

does look a bit silly, agreed.

edit: maybe they've decided to be consistent and always use them when re-reporting stuff other people have claimed. Else, I suppose, it might be perceived as an indicator of what the BBC does or doesn't believe to be true.

I don't have a problem with the BBC's use. It seems to be the best way to report a 3rd party's comment. Newspapers do it - Man 'killed Bambi' , sort of thing - as a means of reporting allegations without getting caught for libel or contempt.

Edit:

Except that they're paraphrasing the claims...

That could put them on dodgy ground.

[mattc]

Greenbank "paraphrased" BBC to make them "look silly"

[citoyen]

It's a long-standing newspaper convention. There are worse crimes against language committed in headlines on the BBC website.

d.

[Cudzoziemiec]

But things like

Red Planet 'may not be lifeless'

does look a bit silly, agreed.

I'm sure it's terribly bad form to quote a post within this thread (and I'm sure you can find worse grammar crimes in some of my posts) but surely that should be "do look a bit silly". The subject is things, not Red Planet or the sentence containing Red Planet.

[mattc]

But you're ok with starting sentences with a conjunction, are you?!?

[Cudzoziemiec]

I am, yes. 

[nicknack]

And I am too.

[clarion]

Though I am not sure why conjunctions are bad things to begin & end sentences with.

[Greenbank]

This is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put.

[mike]

working with an Indian office I get loads of poorly written emails, but this is the best I've seen in ages (and yes, her name really is Pinky...)

She starts her 'English as a business language' course next week 

Dear Mr. Mike,
Ref. trailing mail regarding documents required for UK Visa appointment.

We are planning a meeting with {...}  pertaining to Business Development.
For the purpose of same, I require Invitation letter from UK on letterhead. I request you to send across the same to me.
Please do the needful
Best Regards,
Pinky

[Cudzoziemiec]

I wouldn't call that bad English, I'd call it Indian English. Quite good Indian English at that!

Mr with given name - standard IE.
For the purpose of - standard IE love of wordiness.
Same referring to something mentioned in previous sentence - standard IE grammar.
Do the needful - if something is needful it is necessary.

I'm sure you've also come across "MG Road backside" many a time. 
"But" for emphasis at the end of a sentence.
Etc etc.

English as the language of business for the entire world. In the near future it will probably have an Indonesian accent, perhaps later Brazilian.

[Nuncio]

Newspapers do it - Man 'killed Bambi' , sort of thing - as a means of reporting allegations without getting caught for libel or contempt.

I missed that story.   That's terrible.  Killing one Bambo may have been an accident, but more than one...

[border-rider]

 

I laughed so loudly that the kitten went and hid

[hellymedic]

'Please do the needful' was the phrase in any referral letter that made many junior doctors SCREAM!

It usually meant. 'This patient is sick; I don't now why. I CBA to do any work. You do it.'

[mattc]

working with an Indian office I get loads of poorly written emails, but this is the best I've seen in ages (and yes, her name really is Pinky...)

She starts her 'English as a business language' course next week 

Oh dear - that suggests things are going to get very much worse.

[drossall]

I don't have a problem with the BBC's use. It seems to be the best way to report a 3rd party's comment.

Completely agree - provided that they are quoting and not paraphrasing. If they are paraphrasing, they must take responsibility for the words.

[citoyen]

A certain amount of paraphrasing inside quote marks in headlines is fine - you just need to be careful not to diverge from the meaning of the original quote. We do this all the time on the magazine I work on (mainly to turn a wordy quote into a short, snappy, sensational headline), and we have a very cautious legal department. We haven't been sued yet.

However, I want to make it clear that I'm not hereby endorsing some of the appalling headlines on the BBC website, where the 'quote' in the headline often bears no relation to anything that's been said by anyone. That is wholly unacceptable.

d.

[iakobski]

However, I want to make it clear that I'm not hereby endorsing some of the appalling headlines on the BBC website, where the 'quote' in the headline often bears no relation to anything that's been said by anyone.

Yes, but quote marks are not just for actual quotations, they're also used where something is not necessarily true. In fact exactly what you did up there ^^^

From the earlier list:

Poor children dying 'of neglect'
Why does Jermaine Jackson back Gambia's 'iron-fisted' leader?
Case of condemned female 'adulterer' creating problems abroad for Iran
Spain dismisses Eta 'ceasefire'
Iran 'hampers IAEA investigation'
ME 'virus link' found in children
Fry slams BBC 'culture of fear'
Murder accused's 'gymnastic sex'
EU gets Barroso 'state of union'
Red Planet 'may not be lifeless'
'Genetic link' to breast cancer
Non-stick pan 'cholesterol link'
... plus others, all on the front page.

Poor children aren't actually being killed by neglect, the actual cause of death is something else; Gambia's leader's hands aren't actually made of iron, etc. Headlines have to be short, and quotes are a shorthand for "allegedly" or "so-called". This is especially important with the medical links above - the link is suggested by the research, it's not settled yet, and if you just read the headline you need to know that.

[citoyen]

quotes are a shorthand for "allegedly" or "so-called".

Yes, but who is doing the alleging?

Language Log » Mendacity quotes

d.

[Exit Stage Left]

The word 'Churn' used to indicate customer or staff turnover.
'Churn' driving growth in UK jobs as few new roles are created, says Hays - Telegraph

I can't get my head round the mutation from noun to verb and back to a noun with a different meaning.

[clarion]

This makes me cringe:

Peli & Woolly, and Ariadne IIRC (and us of course) own Octane 3s.

[HTFB]

a massive BANG!.  I'd had a spoke break. 

You weren't listening carefully. The noise made by a breaking spoke is clearly SPANG.

The use of "spang" on this forum to denote the sound of a frying pan wielded by the BEAR, or whatever it is, has been bothering me for months. It's an unnecessary confusion.

I couldn't squash this misconception in the bud because we were out on a tandem LEJOG of unceasing spang at the time. I was getting pretty good at removing the Arai drum, too.

[clarion]

Ah.  Yes.  You see, this is why I specified the noise.  I've heard spokes go various flavours of spang over the years, but this was a much bigger, and more distinct  Bang.  Very odd.  I initially wondered whether it had been a blowout or a stone hitting the bike. 

Meanwhile, using an exclamation mark and a full stop?   What was I thinking?

[clarion]

Little grass snakes should be coming out precisely about now

[iakobski]

Do you think this company really wanted to name itself Principle Link Transport?


Their home page claims they did, but it still doesn't make any sense.