I don’t want to get into what constitutes “properly” just now (there are those who believe that every pronunciation and usage that a native speaker employs is by definition a correct one) but there are newscasters whose acquaintance with the rudiments of the English language is at best middling. I just heard a young woman employed by MSNBC repeatedly pronouncing “nuclear” NOOK-ya-lar–I hear such manglings every day, semi-literate talking heads struggling to pronounce words that they have obviously rarely used, or even seen, before. Sometimes, as with Nicole Wallace, it’s her favorite adjective “fulsome,” which she is under the impression means “full” in a laudatory sense, to mean “complete” or “definitive” instead of the preferred pejorative meaning of “excessive” or “unnecessary.” I thought the ability to speak English was in these people’s job description --they don’t write their own material, after all, and there isn’t much to their jobs besides presenting what is on the teleprompter clearly and correctly, so how do such useless ninnies continue to hold their positions? Is the qualification for “newscaster” simply being a moderately attractive young woman? I see it in male newscasters sometimes, but not nearly as much.
No, there is nobody who believes this. There are, however, plenty of ignorant people with a prescriptivist agenda who persistently repeat this this misconception of what descriptive linguistics means.
That was probably not a great way to start your OP, then.
Do you have anything to say about the stuff I DO want to discuss, or only the part about what I DON’T want to discuss? Maybe you can open a different thread about the subjects you want to discuss?
Isn’t that your answer? Can you really blame someone for mispronouncing a word they’ve rarely used and/or never seen? Plus, if no one tells them they’re saying it wrong it’s possible they have no idea. You don’t know what you don’t know.
In contrast, I remember Alex Trebek getting asked about how he manages to correctly pronounce so many obscure or foreign words*. Granted, he can do multiple takes in needed, he said that he gets all the clues in advance. This gives him the opportunity to read them all and make note of anything he’s unsure of so he can ask someone about it before they start filming.
Going back to newscasters, if the first time you’ve seen a word is on a teleprompter while in front of a camera that’s broadcasting live, there’s not a whole lot you can do.
I’d bet if I sat you down in a studio with bright lights and had you read off a teleprompter for an hour every day, you’d get tripped up by a word here and there. In fact, I’m willing to bet there’s a handful of words that you pronounce incorrectly and have no idea you’re doing it because no one’s ever told you.
*thinking about that, I recall many of those obscure and/or foreign words being French, so there’s that too.
Restricting the scope of a discussion is one thing. But if you start a thread by first asking everyone to grant your misguided ideas about language and proceed on that basis, you cannot reasonably expect that premise not to be challenged.
I have nothing more to say on the matter here, but I don’t think one brief post pointing out that a premise in your introductory sentence is completely wrong is at all inappropriate. Do you want to discuss it further here?
The problem is that they mispronounce or misuse the same words day after day. Either the networks don’t have anyone to inform them (“Um, Nicole? That’s not actually the best use of ‘fulsome’ you keep using…”) or they just don’t care.
So, “No, I can’t open my own thread” is your answer?
You thread title includes the word “properly” but you don’t want to discuss the meaning of “properly”.
You made a statement about people believing in what is or isn’t correct pronunciation, but when pushed back just a little you said “I DON’T want to discuss”.
Perhaps it’s on you to better write your OP to about what you WANT to discuss.
Or are you just looking to rant about newscasters?
I’m looking, as clearly stated, to ask why people think that newscasters who are only moderately skilled at pronouncing and using English are hired and renewed by the networks.
I specifically asked if we could discuss this outside of the discussion of what is and isn’t “proper” pronunciation and usage, as that is a whole separate and unpleasant conversation. If you can’t grant my premise that such a thing exists, you are hijacking this thread.
Thank you.
And yet, even knowing that might be the case, you called them useless ninnies, semi-illiterate and questioned if their only qualifications are being female, attractive and young.
First show us that’s even the case. I don’t think mispronouncing a word you’ve never seen is grounds for calling someone “only moderately skilled”.
That was not the part of your premise that I was challenging.
I’m confused. This sounds contradictory. If you’re talking about people who don’t write their own material and whose only job is to read off a Tele-prompter (can you give examples of people like this?), why would you be criticizing them for their choice of words?
Sometimes, a commentator such as Nicole Wallace is improvising or engaging in ad lib conversation (and usually doing some damage to the language when she does so) and other times she is reading off a teleprompter material that is either prepared for her to read or that she prepares herself. Other newscasters read prepared material almost exclusively.
These are two separate problems, pronunciation and usage, that I am joining together. I think the root problem is the same for both, but we can discuss them separately.
For a while, a woman on the local news kept pronouncing schedule shedule. It was annoying.
I don’t think anybody is obligated to allow a poisoned well to go unchallenged, and pointing out factual errors is not a hijack.
ETA: you CAN edit a post in a locked thread. This is a power to be used only for evil. I mean good. Good!
That’s a British pronunciation, and assuming she was raised and educated in the U.S., she may have been affecting that pronunciation to sound smarter or something.
This is standard British pronunciation, fyi.
On the assumption that she’s a native speaker of American English, I’d have to wonder if that’s on purpose. Isn’t that almost exclusively a UK pronunciation?
(ETA, turns out you can edit a post in a locked thread.)