Think this deserves its own thread - speaking of headlines

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Anonymous123
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Re: Think this deserves its own thread - speaking of headlin

Post by Anonymous123 »

my5cents wrote:..........
Lesson -
"thief" - someone who takes an unattended item, no violence, no threats of violence
"robber" - someone who takes an item or attempts to take an item with violence or threats of violence
"robbed" - what someone should say after they have been the subject of a ROBBERY, which is described above
"burglary" - what happens when premises (not a vehicle) has been entered with the intent of or the actual theft of items. After you have been the victim of a burglary you HAVEN'T BEEN ROBBED.
"swiped" - slang for what a "thief" does, NOT what a robbers does.

It is common to see headlines : "Chevron Station Robbed"
The story goes on to say : "Sometime over the weekend thieves entered the Chevron station at XYZ Rd and ABC St. through a window and stole an undermined quantity of cigarettes." The Chevron station wasn't robbed, it was burglarized and the people doing it were burglars not "thieves".

We also hear : "Armed thugs entered the Bank of XYZ today in XXX, brandishing what appeared to be a shotgun and obtained an undisclosed amount of cash, the thieves were seen leaving in a blue........."

Yes, "thugs", "culprits" are great alternate terms for the robbers who robbed the bank, but "thieves" is not.

How confusing would it be to hear : "Armed thugs entered the Bank of XYZ today in XXX and obtained an undisclosed amount of cash, the rapists were seen leaving in a blue........."

There are generic terms for crimes, but "thieves" aren't robbers or burglars. "Swiped" isn't synonymous for Robbed.



While your at it ....
Pled and pleaded.
Last week he pleaded guilty.
Last week he pled guilty.
Be careful when you follow the masses.
Sometimes the M is silent
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Re: Think this deserves its own thread - speaking of headlin

Post by my5cents »

Anonymous123 wrote:While your at it ....
Pled and pleaded.
Last week he pleaded guilty.
Last week he pled guilty.

Yes I agree.

I was just addressing definition errors.

As you and Bsuds have noted, the English is atrocious, and this is from the small segment that actually decided to enter a profession that requires a knowledge of English.

You can imagine what the rest are like.

I read the Castanet article on the fire at (what I call, a "farmhouse") a "farm home", "fire house", "farmhouse" and I wondered what the author's English teachers would say.
I hope the sentence starting with "The residents were fortunately not home......" isn't an example of the quality of our education system.

http://www.castanet.net/news/Penticton/ ... ed-in-fire
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mexi cali
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Re: Think this deserves its own thread - speaking of headlin

Post by mexi cali »

While I am not defending the media in general, I have to say that the verbiage used in their headlines is used specifically so the average schmo can understand what the story is about and whether or not to read it.

It's kind of like texting "OMG and LMAO and LOL" etc. etc. It isn't so much that it's correct but rather that the recipient understands what the message is so who gives a rats asssss whether or not it was swiped, stolen or robbed?

The vast majority of readers are less than scholarly but if they make up the majority of the readership then doesn't it make sense to speak their language?
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Re: Think this deserves its own thread - speaking of headlin

Post by my5cents »

mexicalidreamer wrote:While I am not defending the media in general, I have to say that the verbiage used in their headlines is used specifically so the average schmo can understand what the story is about and whether or not to read it.

It's kind of like texting "OMG and lol and LOL" etc. etc. It isn't so much that it's correct but rather that the recipient understands what the message is so who gives a rats asssss whether or not it was swiped, stolen or robbed?

The vast majority of readers are less than scholarly but if they make up the majority of the readership then doesn't it make sense to speak their language?


The problem, though, is if we talk down to the lowest common denominator then doesn't it "dumb down" our society.

The US, I think is worse... for example, should we state, "I asked him if he'd lone me his car", or,,,, "I axed him if he'd borrow me his car" for, unfortunately, a lot of inner city Americans, #2 would make more sense.

What about the rest of us ? Wouldn't the correct usage of terms increase the understanding and promote such use in general ?

I live in Summerland, not too much happens here (and that's the way we like it). A while back Castanet displayed the headline (true) "Shell station in Summerland Robbed"

I immediately checked out the story, thinking "what !, an armed robbery is Summerland !!!"

The story went on to describe a burglary that had occurred over the weekend at the service station. But even reading the beginning of that story didn't tell the story. "Thieves got cigarettes and a small amount of cash from the Shell Station in Summerland ....."

There's that good old "thief" reference. "Thief", that stands in for robber, burglar, and sometimes, sadly, not often, used to describe an actual thief.
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Re: Think this deserves its own thread - speaking of headlin

Post by LoneWolf_53 »

my5cents wrote:I hope the sentence starting with "The residents were fortunately not home......" isn't an example of the quality of our education system.


Ahhhhh...........but it is.

The system rarely fails anyone these days, for fear of harming their fragile egos, and perpetuating the myth that everyone is equal, everyone is a winner, and there are no losers.

Just wait a little while longer, to see how much further the English language goes down the toilet, now that every child beyond the age of five, is glued to a cell phone, and "you" has become "U", "see" has become "C", late is "L8", and so it goes.

I'm confident that those forms, will in the near future, migrate from being mere phone text abbreviations, to standard fare in any area, as those using such, don't know, or can't be bothered, to use the proper form.
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Re: Think this deserves its own thread - speaking of headlin

Post by LoneWolf_53 »

my5cents wrote:The problem, though, is if we talk down to the lowest common denominator then doesn't it "dumb down" our society.


That would be my take on it, yes.

I've even sat and pondered this a bit, wondering how we've managed to get to this point.

My conclusion is that it's really nothing more than sheer laziness.

I think back to childhood, and all the advancements in technology since that time. It's really only approximately the last century since farmers had to clear their land using little more than their sweat, ingenuity, and if amongst the lucky, maybe a horse to help.

Seeds had to be planted by hand, homes built by hand tools (no such thing as Black & Decker then), most had to walk where they were going, grow their own food, make their own preserves, and the list goes on.

Then begins the industrial revolution, the horse gets kicked aside in favour of the tractor, automobiles replace feet, WalMart replaces mom for the most part, offering cheaply on shelves, all that used to fall to mom, to make and provide.

Now don't get me wrong, I'd be a major hypocrite if I didn't admit that I loved the arrival of the Bobcat, which made much of what I had to do back then far more manageable.

The thing is though, I'm afraid that this endless quest for making man's life easier has gotten out of control. I doubt there are too many of the current generation that have to put in, or are willing to put in, 16hr work days just to eek out an existence for their family.

We have tractors to plow, washing machines to do laundry, automobiles to get us where we need to go, airplanes, mass produced food on shelves, to where many don't even think of canning or preserving, heck for that matter it seems many these days don't even know how to cook, clothes mass produced, nail guns replacing hammers, so in essence though the list could go on for eons, endless advancements to free up our time.

Wondering where I'm going with this yet?

Well with all this time that we have freed up, you would think that we should have enough to communicate using proper language. Instead even that is being bastardized in that never ending quest to save time.

In the end what are we saving all this time for? I mean the path we are on now, it won't be long before robots do practically everything, so this causes me to wonder what exactly the future role of humans is to be?

Let's not forget that we are in fact designed to be active, work, do manual things etc.

All it takes is a quick look around, at how obesity is now the norm, to note that something is without a doubt amiss.

I'm sure there'd be far less health issues out there, if more people embraced breaking a sweat now and then, instead of overindulging in the never ending quest for more free time, and an easier life.

Laziness now prevails, that's all I can conclude.

I'd also add that there's little excuse for poor grammar these days, particularly amongst those who have chosen a profession, that should by rights demand a higher understanding of it, than say a ditch digger.

After all it doesn't really take that much effort to proof read something, and even less, to double check words one might be unsure of, since with google at hand, one need not even expend the effort to open a large dictionary, to hunt for a word, but what it does require, is the willpower to do so.

Personally I find it a sad commentary, that with all the advancements seen in the last century, having worked in and around construction all my life, I still see better quality workmanship in houses 100+yrs old, than I observe in some brand spanking new ones, despite such innovations as the laser level.
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mexi cali
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Re: Think this deserves its own thread - speaking of headlin

Post by mexi cali »

The problem, though, is if we talk down to the lowest common denominator then doesn't it "dumb down" our society. Nope. Already been done. That ship has sailed.

The US, I think is worse... for example, should we state, "I asked him if he'd lone me his car", or,,,, "I axed him if he'd borrow me his car" for, unfortunately, a lot of inner city Americans, #2 would make more sense. Agreed and that is sad beyond sad. BEE tee dubs. It would be "loan", not "lone"

What about the rest of us ? Wouldn't the correct usage of terms increase the understanding and promote such use in general ?
Presumably the rest of us are smart enough to read both versions of English. the other group, not so much.
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