Kirk Mahoney . com

I heard this a week ago on CNN.

Problem:
The speaker said the opposite of what she meant.

Explanation:
U.S. Secretary of State Clinton said on April 22, 2009, (quote) “I think we cannot underscore the threat …” (unquote) in a presentation to the U.S. Congress, and the CNN television network broadcast it on April 23.

I do not recall the end of the statement, but I do remember that Secretary Clinton did not include the word “enough” in her statement.

If I recall correctly, the (quote) “threat” (unquote) referred to the threat of the Taliban taking control of Pakistan’s nuclear arms.

Secretary Clinton was trying to say that she could not overemphasize the threat.

The verb “underscore” in this context simply means underline or pay attention to, not overemphasize.

The solution comes from including the adverb “enough” or the adverb “sufficiently” in the statement.

The Secretary’s misstatement is equivalent to someone saying (quote) “I could care less.” (unquote) when he or she should say (quote) “I could not care less.” (unquote).

Solution:
“I think we cannot underscore enough the threat …”

I saw (quote) “ORIGINAL COPY” (unquote) misspelled here yesterday while writing my blog post about Engrish.com.

The phrase went right past me when I first saw it yesterday — probably because it is so common, especially in American English.

But reading the phrase a second time made me think, “Huh?!”

How can something be original and a copy at the same time?

It cannot, so this phrase is a self-negation.

For fun, I searched Google for “original copy” (with the quotation marks, to avoid variations) and got about 1,100,000 matches.

Yikes!

Have you ever heard someone say something similar to (quote) “The company made a quantum leap in productivity this past quarter.” (unquote), as if trying to say that a lot of progress was made?

I do not know the origin of the phrase “quantum leap”, but you should know that this euphemism, which is especially popular in American business, is essentially a self-negation.

The classic definition of the noun “quantum” is the smallest quantity of radiant energy that can exist independently.

A “quantum” in physics is the energy that is equal to the frequency of the associated radiation times Planck’s constant.

And a “quantum leap” refers to the discontinuous, instantaneous jump of an electron in an atom from one quantum state to another.

So taking a “quantum leap” truly refers to taking the smallest leap possible — not exactly what most Americans mean when they say it.

I suspect that many people misapply the phrase “quantum leap” so that they can sound smarter.

But they end up sounding a bit ignorant or pompous to anyone who has been exposed to even a little bit of modern physics.

I heard someone say this in an interview the other day.

Problem:
The adverb “back” in “reciprocate back” is redundant.

Explanation:
I heard an Internet-marketing guru say (quote) “They’ll reciprocate back for you.” (unquote) in an audio file recorded as part of an interview series sponsored by Brad Callen, the maker of Keyword Elite.

The verb “reciprocate” when used without an object usually means to make a return, so the meaning of (quote) “reciprocate back” (unquote) would be to make a return back.

Because the “re” in “return” means back, one could argue that someone who (quote) “reciprocates back” (unquote) would never make a return (e.g., for something given).

For fun, I searched Google for the expression “reciprocate back” (with the quotation marks, to avoid variations) and got about 7,920 matches, which is relatively low.

I continue to believe that the growing tendency, at least in American English, to add the adverb “back” after many “re” verbs reflects a growing ignorance about the meanings of the roots of English words.

Solution:
“They’ll reciprocate for you.”

I overheard this yesterday.

Problem:
The adverb “back” in “report back” is redundant.

Explanation:
The verb “report” comes from the Latin verb “reportare”, which to carry back.

So the meaning of (quote) “report back” (unquote) would be to carry back back.

Because the “re” in “report” means back, one could argue that those who (quote) “report back” (unquote) would never reach their intended audience.

For fun, I searched Google for the expression “report back” (with the quotation marks, to avoid variations) and got about 3,740,000 matches.

This is depressing.

Solution:
“They dotted-line report to Becky.”

I saw this in a course for sales agents.

Problem:
The word “back” is redundant in this expression.

Explanation:
The expression was part of advice in a company’s course for its sales agents:

(Quote) “Once you have determined which of the 4 Ps applies, mirror back (or paraphrase) to the customer what you think the objection is to be sure you are on the right track.” (unquote)

The word “mirror” means reflect when used as a verb, and the “re” in “reflect” means back.

So one could argue that a “mirror back” action would never reach the intended recipient.

Solution:
“… mirror to the customer …”

I heard this a few days ago in a conference call.

Problem:
The adverb “back” in “relate it back” is redundant.

Explanation:
A man promised on the conference call to send some information to a woman who also was on the conference call.

In turn, the woman on the call began a sentence with (quote) “I’ll relate it back to …” (unquote) so as to indicate that she would take the information — the (quote) “it” (unquote) in the sentence — and connect it to something else.

The “re” in “relate” means back.

Therefore, one could argue that (quote) “relating back” (unquote) would never establish the connection.

I believe that the growing tendency, at least in American English, to add words such as “back” after many verbs reflects a growing ignorance about the meanings of the roots of English words.

Solution:
“I’ll relate it to …”

I saw this in an email message a few days ago.

Problem:
The noun is incorrect.

Explanation:
The complete sentence was (quote) “We all need to put our thinking gaps on and come up with some thoughts on how we can bend the curve.” (unquote).

The message writer was asking readers to think of ideas that could change the shape of a trend line.

The correct noun to follow “thinking” is “caps” — spelled C-A-P-S — not “gaps” — spelled G-A-P-S.

The message writer created a self-negation with his error with just one letter in just one word, given that a “thinking gap” (with a “g”) is effectively the opposite of a “thinking cap” (with a “c”).

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following combinations (with the quotation marks) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

• “thinking caps on” — 128,000 matches
• “thinking gaps on” — 4 matches

This tells me that Web authors have very rarely made the mistake that the email message writer made.

Solution:
“… put our thinking caps on …”

I heard this on television yesterday.

Problem:
The adverb “back” in “return back” is redundant.

Explanation:
The verb “return” means to go back, so the meaning of (quote) “return back” (unquote) would be to go back back.

Because the “re” in “return” means back, one could argue that someone who (quote) “returns back” (unquote) would never reach the intended destination.

For fun, I searched Google for the expression “return back” (with the quotation marks) and got about 2,490,000 matches. This is depressing.

Solution:
“return”

I heard this yesterday during a news interview on a local television station.

Problem:
The adverb “back” makes the statement self-negating.

Explanation:
To quote-unquote “credit” an amount to someone is to refund what that person had paid.

The “re” in “refund” means back. Therefore, one could argue that a “refund back” action would never reach the intended recipient.

In other words, the adverb “back” should NOT be used to modify the verb “credit”.

For fun, I searched Google for “credit back” (with the quotation marks). Unfortunately, I could not use the results to get a reliable estimate of the number of erroneous instances because there are many instances on the Web of correct use.

For example, (quote) “Colorado lawmakers want to bring tax credit back.” (unquote) is an example of correct use of “back” after “credit” because “back” in this sentence is modifying the verb “bring” instead of the noun “credit”.

Solutions:
“They credited me the whole amount.”
OR
“They credited the whole amount to me.”