Increasing Verbal Chaos

        According to a news story that I read recently, The English language will adopt its one millionth word sometime the fall. No one knows what it will be, of course, and I have no way of knowing exactly how anyone can determine when it will happen or what the word will be when it does arrive. For that matter, I cannot attest to the accuracy of that count with any certainty - and I seriously doubt whether anyone else can either. Still the story does point to an interesting fact; the English language has become a remarkable vehicle for communication. Without wanting to challenge the value of other international languages, English may well be the most versatile of them all.

        This is all the more reason why those of us who care about the quality of the language continue to protest sloppy, inaccurate, or trivial uses. A language that is spoken (and written) by so many millions of people, very often as a second or third language, is in grave danger from grammatical or syntactical misuses, particularly when they are committed by those who have some vested interests in preserving the accuracy and integrity of the language. I have two examples that I would like to underline in this space, two examples from a great long list.

        I am annoyed when I hear someone talking about "growing his (or her) business". I object to using the very "to grow" in this context for two reasons. In the first place, I associate "growing" with an organic activity trees or plants or children grow; I am not convinced that businesses do.

        Secondly, we have other words that describe more accurately what they do do: businesses "expand" or "develop". What is wrong with those perfectly good words? Does the idea of "growing a business" make it somehow more personable or attractive than expanding or developing it? I really don't know, but neither do I know why these words should be abandoned so that another one, that already has its full slate of meanings, can take on additional meanings or applications.

        However, the construction that causes me to gnash my teeth in frustration is one that I have heard increasingly frequently in recent weeks. I first heard it uttered by the new hostess of the CBC's Information Morning program. She is fond of using it in this fashion: "The temperatures today will be between five to eight degrees." the problem lies with the two little linking words "between" and "to". I have always understood that the proper constructions (and two are possible) would be "between five and eight degrees" or "from five to eight degrees." In other words, the proper pairs are "between and and" or "from and to." Were she the only person to use that misconstruction I would dismiss it as a verbal curiosity. However, in recent days I have heard three different reporters from the ATV Alive at Five and The ATV News teams using it as well.

        Does it matter after all? Well, I, for one, happen to think that it does. If we continue to permit anything and everything, eventually we forego the right to communicate with any degree of accuracy. heaven knows, we have a hard enough time understanding what each other is trying to say at present; increasing verbal chaos will contribute nothing of any benefit to anyone.