Grammatical mistakes

[William Ryan]

I am amazed that Paul is amazed. Yes, British English differs from 
American English - we broke away from America some time ago - and the 
article in question was dealing entirely with British realia, 
institutions and current affairs, so British terms were rather to be 
expected. Yes, the Treasury is the British government department which 
deals with finance and economic planning, surely not so very different 
from the US Treasury as to impede understanding, redundant does indeed 
mean they were not needed. For the rest, a quick look at Wikipedia or 
Wiktionary would have dispelled his bafflement - and also revealed that 
some of the terms are not unknown in the USA, e.g (all from US sources).

    Built environment – the University of California has a “Center for
    the Built Environment”

    house builder - "HOUSTON (ICIS news)--US house builder confidence
    fell to a new low in July as sales fell, credit tightened and the
    economy sank, a trade group said on Wednesday."

    Identikit - see Websters New World College Dictionary, Cleveland
    Ohio, 2101, s.v. Identikit

I confess I had not seen '"Legoland houses" before, but (Danish) Lego is 
sold in the US just as much as in the UK this journalistic metaphor is 
surely not too opaque?

Will Ryan



On 24/10/2011 09:03, Paul B. Gallagher wrote:
> R. M. Cleminson wrote:
>
> [quoting Alex Harrington without attribution:]
>>> It's 'fed up with' not 'fed up of' in British English too.
>>
>> So "of" is a mistake within the meaning of this thread... See
>> <http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/mar/09/legoland-estates-housing-minister 
>> >
>> and specifically the note at the end of the article!
>
> Just got around to reading this...
>
> I thought I knew English, but it seems I only know American. I was 
> amazed at the number of expressions I had difficulty parsing or 
> couldn't puzzle out at all.
>
> "Legoland" -- never heard this applied to human-sized residences. Are 
> these cookie-cutter homes that all look alike? If so, how are they 
> different from "identikits," another completely new word to me? I 
> thought perhaps they were talking about "manufactured homes," but the 
> photo doesn't look seamy enough for that...
>
> "Housebuilders" -- easily transposed to our "homebuilders."
>
> "Identikit 'Legoland' estates" -- what on earth??? Over here, an 
> "estate" generally contains some palatial mansion for the upper crust. 
> Is this BE for "development"?
>
> "redundant timber beams" -- If they're redundant, they aren't needed, 
> now are they? Do they mean to say the beams have been salvaged from 
> the demolition of other structures?
>
> "the Built Environment" -- what could this be? Sounds oxymoronic, like 
> "military intelligence" or "jumbo shrimp."
>
> "urging the Treasury to rip up planning controls" -- what does the 
> Treasury have to do with local housing development? I seem to recall 
> the British call their treasury the "Exchequer," so I'm mystified as 
> to what the "Treasury" could be -- presumably it has nothing to do 
> with national fiscal policy despite the name? And it sounds really 
> bizarre to my ear to speak of "ripping up controls."
>
> "bog standard" -- I would never have a clue what this meant if a 
> British friend hadn't explained it to me years ago. I still see no 
> reason to give this meaning to "bog" -- it would be equally reasonable 
> to pluck some other word out of a hat: "toaster standard," "bluebird 
> standard," etc.
>
> "Grade II listed" -- completely impenetrable.
>
> "social housing" -- no idea what this could be.
>
> "local authority housing waiting lists" -- I think I understand 
> "waiting lists," but the rest is impenetrable.
>
> "purpose-built village" -- hunh?
>
> "an unprecedented combination of model industrial housing" -- with 
> what? How can you have a combination of one thing?
>
> And the most amusing thing of all is that at the upper left corner of 
> the page, it says "Edition: US." ;-)
>

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