THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 23, 1997 TAG: 9702230187
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: 57 lines
Molly Roper of Norfolk is on a mission to restore the first person pronoun ``I'' to primacy in the English language, and I am all for her in the struggle.
Well, I'm for her whatever she says, but in this instance she happens to be right.
She fears that the use of ``I'' is waning in everyday language and that it is in danger of extinction.
Not long ago, during a local evening newscast, she heard an anchor say that ``So-and-so'' (the other anchor) ``and myself will be back for the 11 o`clock news.''
Why shrink from using ``I'' in that context? To substitute ``myself'' seems pretentious, does it not?
Well, maybe not to some persons.
Perhaps the anchor felt that ``myself'' was a more modest usage, self-effacing, less likely to offend listeners than would the upright, straight-forward ``I.''
But it irked Molly. And me. And it happens to be incorrect grammar.
Further, she encloses two examples of the offense from print, so television is not the only culprit among the media. Let us all resolve to head off this pernicious trend.
Moreover, there is new-found ammunition with which to resist the growing misuse of the noun ``loan'' as a verb.
To put the noxious mistake into perspective a sensitive reader suggests that we use ``loan'' the noun to replace ``lend'' the verb in the arresting opening sentence of Antony's funeral oration for Julius Caesar.
``Friends, Romans, countrymen,'' Antony cried to the crowd, ``lend me your ears!''
What an imperative start that was. The lean verb ``lend'' grabs the audience by the very ears.
The bloated, tinny noun ``loan'' ruins the grand summons of Antony's call to attention.
Can you see how damaging it would have been if Antony had beseeched the populace, ``Friends, Romans, countrymen, loan me your ears.''
That's absolutely flat. It sounds as if Antony is preparing to sell used cars. His hearers would have turned away in disgust.
And, immediately after that original beginning, the demogogic Antony intoned, ``I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.''
Among the vainest of men, Antony the shrewd rabble-rouser would never have backed into that strong declarative sentence by saying meekly, obsequiously, ``Myself have come to bury Caesar. . . ''
For the cherished instruction in the distinction of the effects of ``lend'' and ``loan,'' I'm indebted to a reader whose letter I lost.
I'd been hanging back, hoping the note would turn up. Nothing pleases me more than such an insight.
Nothing irks me more than my loss of a letter. I hope that she, if she reads this, will please call. I always wish to attribute the source that enhances understanding.