Re^3: poll ideas quest 2015

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Re^4: poll ideas quest 2015 by davies (Monsignor) on May 15, 2015 at 18:35 UTC
"He will speak to the budget deficit" is a horrible neologism, thought by the perpetrator to mean "speak ABOUT". "I want to speak with you privately". No you don't. You speak with your mouth and larynx. Sometimes people speak with passion. But you speak TO a person or group of people. "doesn't sound like it makes a difference" - none of them do to people who abuse the language. But to those of us who try not to, it makes a difference. BTW, s/speak/talk/g is just the same in the blunders and corrections I've given. Regards, John Davies	[reply]
Re^5: poll ideas quest 2015 by soonix (Chancellor) on May 18, 2015 at 11:02 UTC
I'm not a native speaker, but this "to" thing might come from speaking "to the point". As for speak/talk "with" someone, probably the speaker wants to create an impression of wanting a dialogue ("to discuss" comes to mind). Or - he is german :-)	[reply]
Re^6: poll ideas quest 2015 by davies (Monsignor) on May 19, 2015 at 08:06 UTC
On your first point, I'm not clear which of (at least) two possibilities you mean. Yes, speech can be "to the point", meaning concise, but no, you cannot say "he will speak to the point of the budget deficit". That's a long winded version of the blunder example I gave and exacerbates the blunder by failing to be to the point. :-) On your second, I agree that the probable origin is confusion between monologue and dialogue forms. You might speak to me, but I don't have to listen. But if you are conversing with me, that implies I am listening and responding. Regards, John Davies	[reply]
Re^5: poll ideas quest 2015 by chacham (Prior) on May 18, 2015 at 13:20 UTC
For to/about, i'm not convinced, but it's a good point nonetheless. For with/to, a quick search found it to be a preference. The same seems to be true for "inside" and "inside of" (which sounds akin to "between" and "in between".) In the case of PERL/Perl, that seems specific to writing.	[reply]
Re^6: poll ideas quest 2015 by davies (Monsignor) on May 19, 2015 at 08:16 UTC
The article you link to is written in American, not English (further update coming!), and any nation is entitled to define their language in any way they choose. However, in English, it's Just Plain Wrong. See my reply (Re^6: poll ideas quest 2015) to Soonix for more discussion. Inside can be a noun or a preposition. "He is inside the house" and "he is painting THE inside OF the house" are both correct, but "he is inside of the house", while unpleasantly common, is Just Plain Wrong. Yes, the PERL one is specific to writing, but it does get some people agitated. Regards, John Davies	[reply]
Re^7: poll ideas quest 2015 by chacham (Prior) on May 19, 2015 at 13:06 UTC