Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Dilbert on the abuse of graphics
Since I'm going to an Edward Tufte seminar on Monday, I thought today's Dilbert comic was quite timely:
Friday, March 6, 2009
Language peeve of the week: "forecasted"
I'm seeing this more and more lately. Consider this, from ABC news:
"In a speech this morning at an economics conference in northern Virginia, just outside Washington DC, Romer, noting that 'the deeper the recession, the more rapid the rebound,' forecasted that when the country recovers from its current crisis, it will enjoy a period of 'very rapid growth'”.
Forecast works perfectly well as a past-tense. And doesn't it just sound better to say that Romer "forecast that when the country recovers?"
I know, your dictionary says "forecasted" is ok. Well, Theodore Bernstein says it better than I can:
"If you think you have correctly forecasted the immediate future of English and have casted your lot with the permissivists, you may be receptive to broadcasted, at least in radio usage, as are some dictionaries. The rest of us, however, will decide that no matter how desirable it may be to convert all irregular verbs into regular ones, this cannot be done by ukase, nor can it be accomplished overnight. We shall continue to use broadcast as the past tense and participle, feeling that there is no reason for broadcasted other than one of analogy or consistency or logic, which the permissivists themselves so often scorn."
Forecast is derived from the word "cast." Would a fisherman say "I casted my line into the stream?" I think not.
"In a speech this morning at an economics conference in northern Virginia, just outside Washington DC, Romer, noting that 'the deeper the recession, the more rapid the rebound,' forecasted that when the country recovers from its current crisis, it will enjoy a period of 'very rapid growth'”.
Forecast works perfectly well as a past-tense. And doesn't it just sound better to say that Romer "forecast that when the country recovers?"
I know, your dictionary says "forecasted" is ok. Well, Theodore Bernstein says it better than I can:
"If you think you have correctly forecasted the immediate future of English and have casted your lot with the permissivists, you may be receptive to broadcasted, at least in radio usage, as are some dictionaries. The rest of us, however, will decide that no matter how desirable it may be to convert all irregular verbs into regular ones, this cannot be done by ukase, nor can it be accomplished overnight. We shall continue to use broadcast as the past tense and participle, feeling that there is no reason for broadcasted other than one of analogy or consistency or logic, which the permissivists themselves so often scorn."
Forecast is derived from the word "cast." Would a fisherman say "I casted my line into the stream?" I think not.
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