This was inspired by something I heard my sister-in-law say recently when she heard that someone had just given birth. She wanted to enquire as to the sex of the child, and the sentence she uttered, in its entirety, went:
“Was it a little baby girl or was it a little baby boy?”
No, you clot: it was a big, adult giraffe.
Am I right in thinking that the usual term on that side of the Atlantic for a canine that assists a person with a sight impairment is a “seeing-eye dog”? If so, what do you imagine an eye can do in addition to see? And a dog whose eye could not see would be a pretty useless aide for a blind person. We call them “guide dogs”.
Is anyone else as annoyed at such superfluity or tautology as I am?
If I remember correctly, “Seeing Eye” was the name of the group the first trained dogs to guide the blind. Getting a Seeing Eye dog just meant getting one trained properly. You’re right, though, the name seems redundant. These days most people, even on this side of the pond, just say guide dog.
I get bugged by traffic announcers on TV saying that so-and-so is “heading northbound” on the freeway, since where one is heading IS where he is bound. My grandfather couldn’t just say something was huge. He always said “great big huge,” as if stepping up from one level to the next conveyed the object’s enormity better. Sometimes those things bother me a little teeny weeny tiny little bit, but I probably do it, too.
Also, the use of Lord Jesus as . . . basically . . . a comma.
Is the Lord Jesus going to forget who He is while you are addressing Him? Or are you afraid He will think you’ve switched to another diety in mid-prayer?
Oh my goodness. Why did the above two posts make me almost spit out my Spaghetti-O’s. As a constantly praying Christian (hey, I do a lot of dumb stuff, and sometimes I just need divine intervention) I do this alot. I don’t know why though.
Another of the sister-in-law’s irritations (she’s from Sheffield…) is when she wants to buy some raw fish: she heads for the “wet fish shop”. Asked why she adds the word “wet”, she claims that it is to differentiate from that other sort of shop where you can buy cooked fish. Which is called a CHIP shop (or, in Rotherham, a “chip 'oil” - i.e. a chip hole); no mention of fish at all.
[ul]
[li]Soda pop- It’s one or the other, depending on your region or your personal preference.[/li][li]Taxi cab- Again, could be influenced by region, but in any case if you use either term by itself most people know what you’re talking about.[/li][li]Downpour- Have you ever seen an uppour before?[/li][li]6:00 AM in the morning- I think the AM part pretty much establishes that it’s morning.[/li][/ul]
I take your point, and there are hundreds of such superfluous words that annoy the hell out of me…none of which i can think of right now, of course.
But as far as the above example, I think you are making a basic mistake. Which is that human language (particularly as spoken) is primarily intended for the exchange of information.
It does that, of course, and I’m sure your sister-in-law wanted the information regarding the XX vs. XY chromosome status of the child in question. But it’s also all about social interaction (picking up the slack from when we stopped picking nits off each other). And throwing in the extra "little baby"s was just a social signal subtly indicating her belief (or at least her willingness to make social signals of such belief) that the offspring was small and adorable and an overall good thing.
Beyond information, language is a system of social appeasment. We need these things. Otherwise fistfights will break out everywhere. Or, we will have to go back to picking off each others nits. I think you’d agree we’re better off as we are.
Doll baby
Refers to any roughly human-form-like three-dimensional figure that girls play with and dress. But it must belong to a girl for it to be called such.
Barbie, Raggedy Ann, Skipper, Bratz can all be a doll baby.
I’ve long been annoyed by the Raid insecticide commercials’ claim that the product “Kills Bugs Dead!” On a related note, I remember reading a joke book when I was about eight years old and wondering why one of the entries in a section on funny headlines was MAN IS FATALLY SLAIN. My mom had to explain that one to me.
betenoir - the sister-in-law, as I mentioned earlier, is from Sheffield. She could talk a hole in a bucket. The reason she uttered that sentence was not for social interaction (well, not consciously, anyway) but to keep her gob moving for fear her lips will heal up. Incidentally, the traditional Irish question under such circumstances is the rather less long-winded “A boy or a child?”
I accept that speech serves other purposes, and I am certainly not advocating that everyone speak Mr Jingle-like telegraphese, omitting articles definite or indefinite and stuff like that. Hell, I have never even abbreviate words in text messages (which I attempt to punctuate correctly, as well).
“The event will be starting in about three hours from now.”
No. It’s either starting in three hours, or it’s starting three hours from now. Not both, dammit! Not that it’s contradictory (any more than 9 AM in the morning is), just that it’s redundant and annoying and wrong, wrong, wrong!
Thank you. I feel much better now.
(I’m just being silly)