And now it's a hen
Published:
August 17, 2009 at 9:14am
I’m beginning to wonder what sort of fairy-tales these people read when they were children. Little Red Riding Skirt and the Big Bad Rabbit? Jack and the Stem of Garlic? Cinderella (sorry, Sindirella) and the Glass Glove?
timesofmalta.com – Franco Farrugia
That’s right! So, go ahead and build that airfield, and you will be further killing the hen that lays the golden eggs!
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well for once he’s right…his idiom may be wrong but if its fairy tales you’re after…It’s jack and the beanstalk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hen_that_lays_golden_eggs
The ubiquitous scourge of the malapropism makes reading the comments section of The Times a quite unbearable experience. Consider this one, for instance, from Isobel Mcgonigle, who has even contrived to incorrectly write her own surname in this comment beneath an article about empty beaches in Gozo:
When a British tourist ,complains about their holiday in Malta,service,overcharging,etc ,they are called British wingers ,if you dont like it go somewhere else
Low and behold,seems to be a lot of Maltese winging about Gozo
Case of the pan calling the kettle black?
I always wonder how somebody with such abysmal writing skills is even able to read an article all the way to the end in the first place. How is it that they have the time to inundate the Internet with their illiterate views, but cannot spare a few seconds to check for the most grievous spelling and punctuation errors? And why do they not understand that their opinions immediately lose impact when expressed so incompetently?
These and other breakdowns in the cognitive process could constitute an interesting area of sociological research, I feel. In all seriousness though, The Times should consider creating a daily feature in their paper to educate readers about proper usage of popular English expressions, which Maltese readers will blithely insist on using incorrectly. Of course, that would require an editorial staff that is able to compose even the briefest piece without some atrocious mangling of the English language.
Has the time not come for the paper to consider employing native speakers to copy-edit their output?
Reminds me of an Englishman who “sprinkled punctuation throughout a block of text – to make it look good”.
I don’t know. Which is worst. When you put too much punctuation. Or when you go on with a whole paragraph of text without stopping and the whole sentence becomes impossible to read and leaves you breathless at the end then just continues with a whole new sentence which doesn’t have a real connection with the first sentence also including a few improper sayings such as the hen and duck that lays golden eggs or about the guy who jumps over the creek to hatch his eggs and whose wife has a bun in the black kettle.
I understand your pain Peter, but I disagree with the suggestion that timesofmalta.com should edit the comments that are sent in. Why sweep things under the carpet?
And there have been some great British wingers down the years; Stanley Matthews, Georgie Best, Jimmy Johnstone and Ryan Giggs to name but a few.
Lord Chestertfield said to his son:
‘ be wiser than other people if you can;
but do not tell them so ‘
Did you say bun?
Careful with criticism of other people’s language skills, Peter. There were quite a few bloopers in your comment and they weren’t deliberate in the “just checking if you’re paying attention” fashion. I’ll be nice and attribute your lapsi to the haste inherent in online communication.
Too true… but weren’t you impressed with the use of ‘ubiquitous’ and ‘malapropism’?
@Peter: just so you’ll know what I mean: you split an infinitive, you used “educate about” rather than “educate in” and you used “speakers” when you meant (or should have meant) “writers”. The phrase “Maltese will blithely” would have sat more happily as “which certain Maltese continue to insist”. Picky, ain’t I?
It is clear, ABC, that you are not a native speaker of the English language. Peter used the words “native speakers” correctly. It is also typical of someone who is not a native speaker to find nit-picky fault with the use of the split infinitive. It can be employed quite acceptably as a literary device. Peter’s use of the word “blithely” is also perfectly acceptable, and the long-winded way in which you have edited it has removed certain nuances that Peter was conveying. To my knowledge, also, a “blooper” refers to a mistake in the audio/visual media, and not to one in the printed word. A nit-picker must expect his own nits to get picked.
Like Peter, I would be happier to have native speakers editing The Times. My rare contributions to the newspaper are invariably buggered up by ‘editing’. For example, when commenting on a columnist’s contribution I started off by saying “XY is a good read . . ” This was edited to “XY is well-read . .” Although XY is well-read, it is not what I was saying, and it sounds to me somewhat patronising and condescending to say so, a nuance created by the editor which I certainly did not intend. The editor eliminates intended nuances (rather as ABC has done), and creates new ones of his own making.
Hmmm, why do these kinds of ostensibly constructive comments always seem to bring out fallacious pedantry? “Native speakers” is what I meant; that is, as you may be aware, a stock expression. “Educate about” is absolutely fine. And I will disregard all solicitations on the split infinitive, which is a foolish and arbitrary stricture on usage.
But sure, if I make any errors that are so egregious that they make reading my comment difficult or make me appear like a dribbling dolt, then please go ahead and pick at it. As you know, however, I was talking about people that lack any basic understanding of how to use English effectively, and almost seem proud of the way they inarticulately deploy idioms. It is not that they write in haste; they just do not speak the English good. Which is fine, but they deserve to be ridiculed for the clowns that they are when they fail so miserably to compose an even half-coherent argument.
@Leonard: I agree that copy-editing readers’ comments would be quite pointless. What I meant to say was that the parts of the newspaper produced by the journalists could do with heavier scrutiny, since they do after all set the standard. There are a number of matters that need to be taken to task, but no so urgent as the use of false friends drawn from Italian. Almost every other I read seems to contain words that have been used in their Italian sense, and it drives me up the wall.
Obviously, I undermined that point with a couple of suitably doltish typos. Which is why newspaper (should) employ copy-editors. Does The Times even have any?
Ma nafx ta… bil-Malti dejjem tigiega smajtha jien…imma insomma. Nahseb anki bil-Malti ghandna bzonn hafna editors, per ezempju fuq l-istazzjon tal-progressivi, jinsistu li jsejjhu incident bhala accident. (Ic-c bit-tikka trid tkun halli jigu bil-Malti.)
Jekk tfittex fid-dizzjunarju Malti, accident tezisti imma mhix l-istess bhal incident. Accident hija “an occurence” (accidentalment li ghandha ukoll sens ta “kumbinazzjoni”), filwaqt li incident ghandha meaning ta xi haga negattiva.
Imbaghad il-Progs gew jitkazaw bil-billboard tan=”Nats” (biex naharqek naqa din, Daphne!) minhabba il-kelma SKONT …iz-zokk il-fergha.
Point is: I am in contact with someone from the UK (a native) who continuously criticises the way we (Maltese) write and talk in English. He tells me that we have our own version of English – what he means by that, I am not exactly sure. What I’m sure (well I hope) about is that he knows what he is talking about because he is the director of an EFL school in the UK.
Mela allura jekk hux hen, chicken, duck, tigiega, dundjan, beccun, ajkla, jew pagun, ma tantx taghmel differenza – because birds of a feather flock together.
Peace to all!
Did you read this Daphne?
http://www.euronews.net/2009/07/06/geert-wilders-i-m-in-favour-of-romania-and-bulgaria-leaving-the-eu/
What do you think?
[Daphne – I don’t have any thoughts about it.]
I just love these people’s mindset
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE57B4P320090812
Imagine if this happened in Malta and was reported in the Times online – the half-brains populating that site would have flipped.
Talking of golden eggs, golden ducks and hens – can anyone tell me which authority gave permission for an ‘oil rig’ to be parked in front of Wied iz-Zurrieq? Was this done with the MTA’s blessing? Do ministries co-operate with each other?
Should it not be ‘whinging’ or ‘whingeing’ rather than ‘winging’?
All you experts have got me completely confused.
“Leonard” used the word ironically.
[Daphne – Leonard is his real name.]
Thanks. Went over my head completely.
That’s not as bad as the guy who wrote: “We are missing the duck that lays the Golden Duck” in one of the times,com posts.
Must have come from some terrific booze up.