My new book

I sat in the chemist’s shop recently and two things struck me.  One was the enduring popularity of backscratchers.  There they were, propped up right next to the counter, so that people could be reminded as they paid up, Oh I need a backscratcher!  Why can’t they just scratch their backs themselves without aids? If the itch is in a tricky spot, rub against something?  Or get someone else to scratch it for them?  The bamboo backscratcher I remember as a cheap giveaway in sample bags. This new one was a great improvement because it was extendable.

 I also noticed the sign that asked me not to touch the screen at the counter because it was here ‘for mine and your protection’. I wondered how many signs had been produced with this bit of bad grammar on them.  Mine is a pronoun, not an adjective, so it cannot be paired with the adjectival your.  For your protection and mine was what was required where the nominal phrase your protection matched the pronoun mine.

 I also wondered why was it that, wherever I went, I encountered these things.

My new book, Rebel without a Clause, is full of such confrontations, some disturbing, some funny, some intriguing.  It is not a grammar book, and I am not society’s proofreader, notwithstanding my reaction to the chemist shop sign.  I feel it is more important to put such oddities in a context and try to find the pattern in what is happening. Also it is important to know when to be outraged and when to acknowledge change in language. 

 This is all summed up in the article which appeared in The Guardian Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/sep/29/irregardless-of-your-agreeance-language-pedants-should-know-when-not-to-care