In the News (April 3)

swifttumbler

TGIF. In usage and grammar news this month: Taylor Swift defending her grammar; the pet peeves of American copy editors; the language of cancer; the very distinctive sound of the NPR podcast voice; annoying musical abbreviations; and a war on farcical western names adopted by the Chinese. 

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When the Princeton Review used the lyrics to Taylor Swift’s song “Fifteen” as an example of bad grammar in its SAT prep guide, the country music star did protest rather loudly. “ACCUSE ME OF ANYTHING BUT DO NOT ATTACK MY GRAMMAR,” she said on her tumblr page. “Boom, feel that all caps Swift rage,” commented Elle, which carried the story.

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More than 500 copy editors attended the American Copy Editors Society (ACES) conference in Pittsburgh last month. Buzzfeed took the opportunity to ask a room full of copy editors and copy editing aficionados, “What’s your grammar or word pet peeve?” Here are their responses — and some might surprise you …

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“We tend to describe cancer with war metaphors: “battling” the disease, winning the “fight.” But social psychology researcher David Hauser finds that this war language might actually be distorting how we think about cancer prevention.” On her radio show On the Media, Brooke Gladstone talks to Hauser about the language of cancer and its importance in the management and treatment of the disease. Also in the same series: “Receiving a cancer diagnosis can be like entering a foreign land where you don’t speak the language. Literary theorist and memoirist Susan Gubar reflects on the interminable and often alienating vocabulary associated with cancer (metastasis, cachexia) as well as how patients are creating new words that more aptly capture cancer’s idiosyncrasies (scanxiety, chemoflage).”

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“An Example. Of. The NPR Podcast. Voice. And Why It’s. So Annoying.” As the creator of this clip puts it: “All my favorite US podcasts are being ruined by this universally adopted affectation. ‘Planet money,’ ‘This American Life,’ ‘Radiolab,’ ‘Startup’… Why? Why would you do this? Please stop. It’s so boring.” Hear the clip in question on Digg

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Peter Donohoe, one of classical music’s foremost pianists, “is increasingly appalled by musical abbreviations. (But he has some personal favourites).” He pleads his case for more verbal integrity on Slipped Disc

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A US entrepreneur, Lindsay Jernigan, “has declared war on the “farcical” western names being adopted by young Chinese, vowing to liberate her clients from monikers that include Lady Gaga, Washing Liquid and Furry.” This is NOT an April Fool’s Day story; read all the bizarre details in The Telegraph.

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