Saturday, June 25, 2016

More Mangled Language from Trump Tower

More mangled English from Donald Trump. He stated that he is irreparably broken and cannot be fixed. We don;t know if he knows he said that or not. It could be more disingenuousness. With language, if you are knowingly sloppy, you can later say, "that's not what I said" when the grammar errors are overlooked for a supposed intended meaning.

"No one can fix things like me."


He can be repaired by no one.
We might assume that he meant, "No one can fix things like I do;" however, in the public eye and in a leadership position, we need to be clear.

Oh wait, what am I talking about? Trump supporters don't care what he does: he's the big yellow bomb that will put an end to the GOP and then hopefully the obstructionism in which the Republicans have been been wallowing and fermenting for the last 50 years (maybe more: I haven't seen it)

For the sake of those who will be real leaders, the way to keep control of these #subject-objectpronouns is to avoid elliptical construction until you have control of the full expression. Elliptical means with some words left out. (as "..." is called an ellipsis). In other words, when saying something like, "No one understands him like me," think about what you are saying, what you are really saying, what you mean to say?
The meaning of this sentence is that noone understands that male person like they understand you. Is that the intended meaning?

Many people use this incorrect form and many people assume that "like me" means "I do;" it doesn't. Legally, words mean what they say, not what the speaker thinks they mean. It's smart express yourself correctly and know that you are doing so, and it's easier than one might think, given the mangled English of the media.

How is this easy? Avoid elliptical construction until you have control over them. Here are more examples:

"She likes him more than me."
vs.
"She likes him more than I."

Both are correct and mean two different things. Put the verb back in: "She likes him more than I do." "She likes him more than [she likes] me."

I, you, He, She, It, They are all subject pronouns
Me, you, him, her, it, them are all object pronouns.