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ABSTRACT: A POD subscriber wrote to me "I am becoming extremely upset
with the current usage of the words 'and also'. " A Google search
yielded 204 million hits for "and also," thus surpassing even 175
million Google hits recorded in March 2006 for "context," the top
cliche hit in Stan Smith's (2006) "Cliche Challenge." Despite George
Trigg's Grammar Rule #26 "Last but not least, lay off cliches," the
web seems to have accelerated the use of cliches even beyond the
cliche-ridden 1930/40/50's when Frank Sullivan's cliche expert Mr.
Arbuthnot battled the banal in popular writing. Fortunately,
Arbuthnot lives on in masterful essays by Ben Yogada, Frank Prial,
and the late Arnold Arons.
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A POD subscriber wrote to me privately [bracketed by lines "AAAAA. .
. ." for "Anon"; my insert at ". . . .[insert]. . . ."]:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Thank you for the post. . . .["Trigg's Rules of Grammar" [Hake
(2008a)]. . . . in the recent POD mailing list. I just have to add
this one item. I am becoming extremely upset with the current usage
of the words "and also". . . . .[see, e.g., Paul Brians's (2003)
"Common Errors in English"
<http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/index.html> and specifically
<http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/andalso.html>]. . . It seems to
me to have suddenly developed in our language over the past four to
five years, from newscasters, magazine/newspaper writing, oral
presentations, even noticeable in scholarly publications. . . [see
e.g., Penrose (1999)], . . . . . I guess to break one of Trigg's
rules. . . [see Trigg (1979), or Richoux (2002), or Hake (2008a):
Rule #26: "LAST BUT NOT LEAST, LAY OFF CLICHES"]. . . . . this usage
really "bugs me."
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
A Google <http://www.google.com/> searches for "and also" (with the
quotes) on 9 Apr 2008 09:23:00-0700 yielded 204 million hits, thus
exceeding the hit numbers of all the top ten cliche hits of Stan
Smith's (2006) "Cliche Challenge' of 16 March 2006, but falling far
below the 2630 million Google hits for "Blog" in 2008, as shown in
Table 1 below:
TABLE 1. Google Hit Parade of Cliches on 3/6/2006 and About Two Years
Later on 4/8/2008. (perverse discussion list servers may misalign the
columns).
Despite George Trigg's (1979) Grammar Rule #26 "LAST BUT NOT LEAST,
LAY OFF CLICHES," I'm always on the lookout for more and better
cliches, and try to use them big time on the information highway, as
discussion-list subscribers will attest.
Judging from Table 1, the web seem to have accelerated the use of
cliches even beyond the cliche-ridden 1930/40/50's when Frank
Sullivan wrote essays in the New Yorker that featured the cliche
expert Mr. Arbuthnot. The erudite Mr. Arbuthnot futilely battled the
banal in popular writing. Fortunately, Arbuthnot lives on in essays
by Ben Yogada (2001?), Frank Prial (2006), and the late Arnold Arons
(1973, 1984).
And also - you know - that being said, in real time and in the
context of this blog and Google age, the bottom line is that the
imperial concerns of the real-time marketplace demand use of awesome
and amazing cliches not only prior to, but at the end of the day,
around the clock, and 24/7.
Penrose, R. 1999. "The Emperor's New Mind _Concerning Computers,
Minds, and the Laws of Physics." Oxford University Press, publishers
information at <http://tinyurl.com/5d3353>. A Google "book preview"
is online at <http://tinyurl.com/6n8fft> - there a search for "and
also" yields 24 hits.
Prial, F.J. 2006. "Wine talk: Rolling out those chewy behemoths,"
article last updated: 02/22/2006 5:35 AM PST, New York Times News
Service; online at <http://tinyurl.com/3pmqxk>.
Smith, S. 2006. "Cliche Challenge" in "The Progressive Review,"
online at <http://prorev.com/cliche.htm>, probably 16 March.
Safire, W. 1979. "On Language," New York Times, 7 October. See also
Safire (1991). According to Richoux's quote of Safire, Safire like
Trigg, credits anonymous others with having contributed to his list
of "Fumblerules." Safire wrote: "Not long ago, I advertised for
perverse rules of grammar, along the lines of 'Remember to never
split an infinitive' and 'The passive voice should never be used.'
The notion of making a mistake while laying down rules ('Thimk,' 'We
Never Make Misteaks') is highly unoriginal, and it turns out that
English teachers have been circulating lists of fumblerules for
years. As owner of the world's largest collection, and with thanks to
scores of readers, let me pass along a bunch of these
never-say-neverisms."
Safire, W. 1991. "Fumblerules (The Intrepid Linguist Library),
Laurel. Amazon.com information at <http://tinyurl.com/2d89jx>.
Trigg, G.L. 1979. "Grammar," Physical Review Letters 42(12): 747-748,
19 March; online to subscribers at
<http://prola.aps.org/toc/PRL/v42/i12>. For a similar list see, e.g.
Safire (1979, 1991).