News

Unfortunately I am old enough to remember when compositors, proofreaders, and others in the industry were regarded as guardians for the integrity of the English language.

One recalls the erstwhile existence of a profusion of respected imprints of book printers that guaranteed the textual accuracy to be found in the titles emanating from their companies.

Language is constantly changing: sometimes for the better and sometimes not. Usually the worst aspects of change originate from across the Atlantic and are received into this country uncritically and avidly. Americanisms are widely perceived as avant-garde, rather than as inelegant and detracting from the clarity of the language.

One of the most regrettable aspects of linguistic modernism is the conversion of nouns into verbs. Indeed the practice is reaching epidemic proportions, so much so that I wish to bequeath an instruction for the last surviving genuine noun to insert a final full stop and close up the language.

It is astounding to watch the alacrity of businesspeople adopting ‘verbed nouns’ as a badge of progressiveness and cleverness, instead of as a slavish adherence to linguistic fashion and a lemming-like instinct to appear trendy and worldly.

The enchanting Susie Dent, in her book The Language Report, provides a list of some of the latest ‘verbed nouns’: ‘to blade (to rollerblade), to chef, to credential, to guilt (someone) into (doing something), to version and, of course, to text’. One of the most bizarre examples I heard recently was to medal for Olympic and other athletes. Apparently the conversion of the noun impact to a verb began in the 1960s and I still find this particular usage the most irksome and grating.

Lawrence Wallis has held international pre-press marketing positions and is now a respected author and print historian.