OUR MOTHER TONGUE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23097, 23 July 1938, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR MOTHER TONGUE

By PROFESSOR ARNOLD WALL

Random Notes and Little Problems

THE old trouble of the collective noun and the number of the, following verb comes before me. A listener has been shocked to hear the announcement over the air that "the orchestra now play," instead of "now plays,'' which he calls "a glaring mistake." This is certainly a case where the singular form is far preferable to the plural, foi an orchestra is thought of distinctly as a unit. Hut I should not go so far as to call the plural "a glaring blunder. ' It is notoriously <1 iili< ult to decide in main instances whether the singular or the plural should be used, and no general nl | ( . is possible. Once more I e Fowler's words on this question: ' \» line there is always a better and a worse in the matter, there is seldom a right and a wrong." The Proverbial Hatter A double probh ill is involved here, for we have to explain, if we can. both "mad as a hatter," a proverbial Knglish idiom, and the Australian "hatter. ' "Mad as a halter" is tile older ol the two, and according to the authorities it was originally American, so that "mad meant, "angry." In Kngland it is said to have been naturalised by I liackerav (iSli)). Nobody can explain the origin of the expression, and the attempted explanations seem to me ver\ 1 eeble. One is that "hatter" is for "adder, the serpent. Probably there was some topical significance which has been iorHot ten. The Australian "hatter," "a miner that works alone." dates from about and developed the further meanin" of "a man whose brain has heel) turned by living alone, ' a sense which has obviously been influenced by the older "mad as a hatter." The explanation offered in this- ease is that it derives from the proverbial phrase used of an independent person, old-hachelor-jous, happy and glorious. "Ins hat covers his family." This does not sound very convincing to me, but as nothing better is forthcoming, 1 suppose we must try to accept if . Affiliation Problems T am asked to pass judgment on this quoted sentence: "The London Automobile Association is affiliated with the New Zealand A.A." The critic submits that the expression is wrong, because the Knglish Association is I lie parent body to which, lie contends, the N.Z.A.A. should he said to be ;iffilialed. He further submits that "affiliated with" should he "affiliated to." In respect of his first point, my correspondent is perlcetly right. Jt is.

1 to say the least, tactless to suggest ns tlic quoted expression doe--, that | the N.Z.A.A. is the parent body. In of his second point, though undoubtedly "to" is preferable to "with." 1 ran hardly say that "with" is wrong. The verb "to affiliate." according to its dictionary definition, may mean either "to attach" i a society to another, in* which case j "to" must follow, or "to connect'' a society with another, then "with is required. It is, 1 think, difficult, il possible, to say in this case whether a I connection or an attachment has been : made. So there is, or may be. some | justification for the use of "with. But there can he no doubt which of 'the two bodies concerned stands "in I loco parentis" to the other. Too Trivial ' A correspondent asks what is the exact meaning of "a hasty out enduring temper. 1 t nder the cireumI stances, since. 1 am obliged reluctantly i to reply, I should say that the nieaning cannot very well he made plainer than it is in the quoted phrase. A friend of my correspondent says that it means "a temper which (lares up in the morning and rages all day. l.et ■us leave it at that, for if, indeed, there he such a temper that is what tiie phrase is intended to mean, or ; something very like that. 1 It is not. that is to say. a temper which, in the words of Shakespeare, "shows a hasty spark and straight is ! coid again " A question about the ori"in and development of the word "temper" in Knglish would have | drawn from me a very, different and a far more instructive answer. "To Mary and 1" Since 1 wrote a note, some months ago, on the very general tendency to use a nominative pronominal form I after a preposition, not only in New Zealand, hut also at Home. I have received shocking examples from cori respondents and have collected others • myself, mostly as spoken, hut in one case as written by a very well-known I and deservedly popular Knglish writer en natural history. 1 forbear to mention her name. The example, "an invitation to .Mary and I." is sent to me by one who heard it from "a really cultured •lady teacher." This sort of thing leaves one gasping. 1 take up the hammer .twl prepare to knock n nail into a coffin, but realise in time that theie e no corpse. The blunder is very ' much alive, and may, indeed, be I heard almost every day It occurs in j the speech of University teachers and students, and appears to hp actually establishing itself as standard grammar. So I drop the hammer and go ' to weep apart.