Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[Pabmusic]

Does anyone read them in any other English?!

Unoriginal English?

[JFLL]

One of these which grate on me is 'showcasing'. In those never-ending trails on Radio 3, they are forever going to 'showcase' a performer. It's also a particularly inapt figure of speech for a radio programme, in an aural rather than a visual medium.

...but surely no more so than describing or referring to any other radio-only broadcast as a "show", which is nothing new?...

I would say it is relatively new, when referring to a concert or recital, rather than, say, a visual performance such as ‘The Des O’Connor Show’, and is equally inapt. It's also an example of the assimilation of high culture to popular culture, in the quest for ‘accessibility’, no doubt.

[scottycelt]

Does anyone read them in any other English?!

I very much doubt it, but ahinton has a good head's start over other forum members as his English is already extremely original ...

[ahinton]

I would say it is relatively new, when referring to a concert or recital, rather than, say, a visual performance such as ‘The Des O’Connor Show’, and is equally inapt. It's also an example of the assimilation of high culture to popular culture, in the quest for ‘accessibility’, no doubt.

Whilst there's undoubtedly no shortage of that kind of thing about, I don't believe that the cap necessarily fits in this instance. I recall hearing an interview with Malcolm Sargent (who's been dead for 45 years) fairly late in his life when asked (as he must have been on several occasions, I imagine) about his "showmanship" and he deflected the question from himself by agreeing that, this week, he was "showing off" Shostakovich but next week he'd be "showing off" Sibelius; now I do not believe that anyone would have felt conscious of this "showing" even if in the audiences at the live events concerned, but there's no doubt that those listening to them on the radio (i.e. the majority of the audience) wouldn't have "seen" anything of it at all. So, if it's really as "inapt" as you believe it to be, it's been so for a very long time and is therefore not at all new.

[ahinton]

I very much doubt it, but ahinton has a good head's start over other forum members as his English is already extremely original ...

I think that this question has already been answered, scotty and, if you'd not noticed that fact, you've not been paying full attention! That said, I will endeavour to accept your remark as the compliment as which it must surely have been intended!

[scottycelt]

I think that this question has already been answered, scotty and, if you'd not noticed that fact, you've not been paying full attention! That said, I will endeavour to accept your remark as the compliment as which it must surely have been intended!

[Richard Tarleton]

The Welsh health minister has just said on TV that her officials are reading the Francis report and that she will be talking to her chairs, which conjures up a lovely image.

[scottycelt]

The Welsh health minister has just said on TV that her officials are reading the Francis report and that she will be talking to her chairs, which conjures up a lovely image.

You would think one chair would be enough, even for a Government minister ... ?

[ahinton]

The Welsh health minister has just said on TV that her officials are reading the Francis report and that she will be talking to her chairs, which conjures up a lovely image.

Why does this raise the thought of a mental hospital in my mind?

[ahinton]

You would think one chair would be enough, even for a Government minister ... ?

That might depend upon the extent of that minister's clinical obesity, of which there's an awful lot about, as no doubt you know...

[JFLL]

Whilst there's undoubtedly no shortage of that kind of thing about, I don't believe that the cap necessarily fits in this instance. I recall hearing an interview with Malcolm Sargent (who's been dead for 45 years) fairly late in his life when asked (as he must have been on several occasions, I imagine) about his "showmanship" and he deflected the question from himself by agreeing that, this week, he was "showing off" Shostakovich but next week he'd be "showing off" Sibelius; now I do not believe that anyone would have felt conscious of this "showing" even if in the audiences at the live events concerned, but there's no doubt that those listening to them on the radio (i.e. the majority of the audience) wouldn't have "seen" anything of it at all. So, if it's really as "inapt" as you believe it to be, it's been so for a very long time and is therefore not at all new.

I can’t see that this example is relevant. Sargent, in saying he was ‘showing off’ Shostakovich, was evidently making a (to him) witty, punning and disarming allusion to the accusation of ‘showmanship’ and the implication that he liked ‘showing off’, that he was a ‘show-off’. But ‘showing off’ isn’t the same thing as ‘showing’. You can ‘show off’ on the radio or in any medium, visual or otherwise. Would Sargent have said, in another, more normal context, e.g. if asked what his plans were for a forthcoming series of radio concerts, that he would be ‘showing’ Shostakovich? I don’t think so, and it would sound odd and inapt even today.

[handsomefortune]

i love reading this thread, it seems so humane (viewed from the platform i'm showcasing from anyway)!

[Globaltruth]

So, for me, it's starting sentences with "so".

This little word is best used as a conjunction - only a personal preference, I don't think there are any rules of grammar being broken by such usage.

So I'd better get over it.

[Sir Velo]

One of these which grate on me is 'showcasing'.

Use of this expression tells us all we need to know about the commodification of art in today's society. Artists no longer create works of art or perform; they "showcase their talent", as if they are permanently auditioning or trying to sell us something.

[vinteuil]

So I'd better get over it.

So wise!