Souther Language

Soap box time again and this time it is about a plague that is permeating our nation; incorrect grammar. How does one do anything but continue? If you are not continuing you are stopped so where did this use of continue on come from? The same can be said for proceed on or received in; is it possible to receive out? If you ship something it leaves so why shipped out? Can you see what I’m saying? No, not really, I can understand what you are saying but I can not see it. Bring the liquid to a boil and let it reduce down. Personally I have never seen anything reduce up but then maybe I am wrong. It either reduces or it does not. Maybe that is why I can’t lose weight, I figure I’m trying to reduce down when I’m really reducing up. Then there is combined together, if you combine one thing with another it is together, why be redundant? A mirror can reflect an image, your mind can reflect on the past but can you reflect forward? If not then why use reflect back in a sentence? When something is melted it is dissolved or liquefied so there is no need to say melted down. When someone gives birth why do we insist on calling the baby a new baby? Has anyone ever given birth to an old baby? In cooking one could use a roux or a slurry to thicken a soup or a sauce. Why then do the professional chefs use the term thickening up? The use of I or me has changed in the past few years it seems. It used to be I went somewhere or she and I went somewhere not her and me. When you have something you have it, not “I have got it”, that means you have it twice at once. Smelt is a fish not a verb meaning to have smelled. How does one get married off? How do you raise up a child? Why do people insist on using at, at the end of sentences; where is he at? Is and are; is used to be single are used to be plural, has that changed? The school system is probably blamed for this but all you have to do is watch one news show or drama or talk show to know where this incorrect use of grammar comes from. However, I think the school system bears some responsibility as witnessed in college classrooms by the wanton murder of the English language by students that should have learned proper usage before they graduated from high school. Every time one of those phrases falls upon my ears it’s like, you know, like, fingernails on a blackboard.
In answer to the “Don’t Get Me Started” inquiry, they are called paragraphs. Once finished with my review of Davenport’s, I started another subject. I reviewed the article about which you wrote and there is a distinct paragraph separation which I learned was an introduction to a new idea or subject. I thoroughly enjoyed Davenport’s and thought I conveyed those feelings accurately. The greedy people, since you could not tell, were those that circled like vultures after someone’s death hoping to gain from it either monetarily or materially, not those consuming food in the restaurant. If my paragraph structure or introduction to a new subject is at fault, please let me know as it has been a while since English class and please, refer to the first paragraph of this weeks column.