I **LOVE** English, too. The cussedness, as you call it, is exactly my objection in this matter. I'm in the Midwest, land of little-to-no dialect (actually, that's a whole separate issue.) It's all the people who say "I seen him" or "me and him..." etc. , despite having a decent education and, rich or poor, all having had ready access to TV,who drive me nutty with this habit. Even Jerry Springer speaks with appropriate subject-verb agreement. It's a *choice* to speak the lazy English and by that very fact, the choice to do so rankles me.
Apparently "even Jerry Springer" isn't appropriate. There was a This American Life (NPR radio show) about him, and apparently he was a brilliant progressive politician who ended up with a sleazy tv show for reasons that I can't remember. (This assumes that the segment about his was factual--"This American Life" doesn't always label fiction and non-fiction.
I didn't mean Jerry's personal linguistic choices were gramatically incorrect at all. He's clearly intelligent; he's politically savvy and knows how to appeal to the large, lowest-common-denominator segment of the population. I was more referring to his audience and their verbal skills (or lack thereof.) I should have stated that more clearly :-)
Re: Ah ha ha! I was just gonna post the same thing!
The cussedness, as you call it, is exactly my objection in this matter. I'm in the Midwest, land of little-to-no dialect (actually, that's a whole separate issue.) It's all the people who say "I seen him" or "me and him..." etc. , despite having a decent education and, rich or poor, all having had ready access to TV,who drive me nutty with this habit.
Even Jerry Springer speaks with appropriate subject-verb agreement. It's a *choice* to speak the lazy English and by that very fact, the choice to do so rankles me.
Re: Ah ha ha! I was just gonna post the same thing!
Apparently "even Jerry Springer" isn't appropriate. There was a This American Life (NPR radio show) about him, and apparently he was a brilliant progressive politician who ended up with a sleazy tv show for reasons that I can't remember. (This assumes that the segment about his was factual--"This American Life" doesn't always label fiction and non-fiction.
Jerry Springer