Simon says: Prescribing grammar

When we were children, we used to play a game called "Simon says": The person who was "it" — that is, "Simon" — would stand facing us, giving us orders like "hop on your left foot" and "turn right". We would do what he said, but only if Simon introduced his order using the phrase "Simon says". Anyone who did what he said when he didn't use those "magic words" was "out". Now, this game does teach children self-control, which is a good objective. But if you take the game literally, it's terribly pedantic, isn't it? Why do we expect "magic rules" of communication to be followed strictly before we will acknowledge the meaning of a message?

Fittingly enough, another Simon recently called for a stricter practice of grammar at school. Journalist and author Simon Heffer says that schools are too lax with regard to formal grammar rules. "We are judged by how we speak and we are judged — when we put things on paper or online — by how we write," Heffer told the BBC. Now, as Mike Pilewski will show you tomorrow, heroes of good grammar certainly have a role to play. But purist Heffer objects to the widespread practice of "verbing" nouns, which has led to expressions like targeting goals, sandwiching appointments, impacting sales, or incentivizing people. But in fact, English has many words that belong to multiple word classes. Verbing nouns is a creative process innate to the language, quickly understood and easily integrated. I was surprised to read on the Macmillan Dictionary Blog that "contact" is a verbed noun that was considered bad English just 15 or 20 years ago.

The call to return to the old "magic rules" codified in the queen's English is a reaction to falling standards. But it's at odds with a widespread movement among respected grammarians who oppose "prescriptivism", or defining narrow rules of useage, in the living, changing language that is English. Isn't it more useful to understand the contexts in which verbing typically occurs than to learn to avoid it? Columnist John Riach will be presenting the verbing of brands in the October edition of Spotlight. This week, gear up for grammar discussions by spotting mistakes that not just Simon Heffer would say are unpardonable.

Anne Hodgson