prices

[John Dunn]

There is surely something wrong here.  Complaints about declining standards
in English usage on the BBC are supposed to come from that anonymous figure
of British folk tradition "Disgusted" of Tunbridge Wells,* not SEELANGS
readers in Kharkov.  For what it is worth, I would not use that expression,
and I would not recommend non-native speakers (who, as always, are allowed
fewer liberties than native-speakers) to do so; my wife, however, who is
often more conservative (linguistically!) than I am, saw nothing wrong with
it.

It might be worth noting that the BBC cannot always be relied on as a
source of infallible guidance on correct usage.  A few days ago a
newsreader on BBC Radio Scotland read out the name of North Korean
President Kim Jong Il as Kim Jong the Second.

John Dunn.

*Note for non-British readers: Tunbridge Wells is a small town to the South
of London, exclusively inhabited, according to legend, by retired army
officers and others of unimpeachably conservative views.


>Hello, Seelangers
>
>I heard in the BBC the following expression: "...prices might be cheaper..."
>Well, I hear frequently that sort of expressions in my native
>language (Russian). I don't want to look like a snob but I really
>feel myself a bit funny when I hear this. I think that goods may
>be cheaper, services may be cheaper, I'm not sure, but maybe even
>humor may be cheaper (it certainly does in Russian!). But prices?
>they may be bigger or smaller, higher or lower, but cheaper...?
>What do you think?
>
>Aleksander Stratienko
>
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John Dunn
Department of Slavonic Languages
Hetherington Building
University of Glasgow
Glasgow
G12 8RS
Great Britain

Telephone (+44) 141 330-5591
Fax       (+44) 141 330-5593
e-mail    J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk

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