I recently attended a wedding where the Best Man made a (very long) toast without ever using a single subjective noun. It went something like this: “So, just wishing Ken and Barbie (not their real names) the best on their big day. Hoping great things for their future. Really glad God chose to bring them together in this way. So honored Ken asked me to be here. Wanted to say a few things about how wonderful Ken is…” You get the picture. I practically developed hemorrhoids just straining to catch one solitary subjective noun. As bad as that was, I’ve now developed a nasty habit of noticing whenever people choose to drop their subjective nouns. It happens a lot in public speaking, I’m not sure why. Someone speaking up in Sunday school the other week: “Yeah, so thought about this connection between the era of Jonathan Edwards and his ideas about religious affections.. ” I wanted to stand up and shout, “ What?!? Who thought about it? Did you mean to say you thought about it? Do you think you’re speaking Spanish?!? You can’t just drop nouns whenever you want to!” E-mails are another particularly guilty culprit– “Hey! Just wanted to drop a line and see how things are…”
The reason I’m bringing this to your attention is that while you may not have ever noticed this practice before, you will after reading this post. The marginalization of any member of society, especially one as important as subjective nouns, speaks poorly for the future of language and society in general. Marginalization usually leads to subjugation which is not a long way from all out nounocide. Within a few short years the sentence “I just killed a HUGE cockroach in my office and am leaving his dead carcass as a warning to others” could look like “Just killed a HUGE in my and am leaving dead as a to”. I think we can all agree that would be a great loss. So my solution is, the next time you are at a wedding and the best man starts leaving out his subjective nouns, just quietly tap him on the arm and say, “I’m sorry but I think you dropped an ‘I’.”
Just a thought…. I mean, it’s just a thought.
That’s funny!
hehe, funny :p
you know, in Japanese, we drop both subjects and objects. streets are littered with them. traffic may be hampered, but not communication. in a few short years, you’ll be surprised how much a verb can signify.
English: I love you.
Chinese: Wo ai ni. (Wo = I, ai = love, ni = you)
Japanese: Sukidesu. (suki = like*, desu = verb suffix)
*it isn’t typical to speak of “loving” one’s lover.
“I practically developed hemorrhoids”
Going to often use this phrase in regular speech when referring to stressful situations. Will modify it to “practically developed hemorrhoids”.