Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Pet Peeve of the Day: Interviewed

I’m afraid I ran out of posting time, today. In the interests of living up to my commitment for NaBloPoMo, I wanted to post something. I was working on a review of the web site Television without Pity, of which I had never heard, and there I found my pet peeve of the day.

In the extensive and pointlessly detailed recaps (another abbreviation that most people do not recognize as such, since recapitulation sounds like a surrender rather than a re-hash) one of the reviewers (in at least two separate reviews) repeatedly uses the word “interview” as a synonym for “said”. Interview is a perfectly normal verb. It works just fine to write, “Bob interviewed Janet.” You can also use the word as a noun, as, “During the interview, Janet lied to Bob.”

Never before have I seen a sentence like, “Janet interviewed that she hated Bob.” I am entertained by a tish of celebrity dish like any person, but all of the dirt in Delaware cannot make up for a horrid construct like this. I have abandoned my attempt at an impartial review to post this brief rant.


2 comments:








Libdrone

said...

"Janet interviewed that she hated Bob"


This one made me cringe. I well recognize that language is a living, dynamic thing which is constantly evolving and rarely join in with purists who go way overboard in decrying newly adopted words and usages.

But this is one 'evolution' we would most certainly be better off without.





PearLady

said...

It sounds like they're being pretentious, perhaps they want to appear smarter. Unfortunately, it's instead another "oops".

PS. I came over via NaBloPoMo. Thanks for providing an entertaining blog! :)