It's one of those 'cultural imperialism' things - stuff that is so ubiquitous
in US TV content that it spreads across the English speaking world with little
travelling in the opposite direction.
Other examples -
The use of 'gotten' which died out in England shortly after the Elizabethans.
The use of the neologism 'to impact' rather than 'to affect'.
Issue vs. Problem of course.
The strange way that many youths speak, especially girls, which involves the
affectation of a speech impediment and the use of the word 'like' in every
clause (originated in California I think).
Language is dynamic. The practice of creating a new verb from a noun is quite
valid if no acceptable or appropriate word already exists - i.e.' to program'
in several senses - or if a simple noun cause will do the job but often it's
merely ignorant simplification. In business language it becomes a jargon.
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.soultheft.com
Author/Publisher: The SLR Compendium - http://www.blurb.com/books/3732813
On 07/02/2013, at 3:26 PM, DZDub wrote:
>
> I was not disputing the use of "peculiarly" in an adverbial form.
> Perfectly correct. I simply have doubts that the practice of using nouns
> as verbs and so forth is peculiar to Americans. It is common enough
> though. And I could be wrong. It's a hard thing to weigh in the balance.
--
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