I was very much surprised when following my last blog post Grammar Ignoramuses Strike Again on Quora, Frank Dauenhauer whose laughably erroneous Quora post I commented on, reacted with seething rage. He made furious comments on that post (you may read them for yourself - just click on the link above) and he also sent me an angry email. He then posted on his Quora page my entire blog post (which is fine - I have nothing to hide) and he tells his Quora followers that he has been "savagely maligned" by me. Why he went ballistic escapes me totally.
As I informed him, every word I wrote in that blogpost is true. When I call someone a grammar ignoramus, I am merely stating a fact. And quite apart from that mistake made by Frank in his Quora answer, I have other evidence that corroborates my assertion that he is ignorant of grammar. If you have been following my blog, you should know that this was not the first time I pointed out Frank's errors. He has made many errors, some of which are pretty outrageous. It's hard to tell which one of his errors takes the biscuit but I am fairly certain what I am about to reveal to you in this article will have many of you in stitches.
To the simple question on Quora 'Is "I'm doing great" grammatically correct?', Frank replies:
It is natural to dismiss his answer as complete nonsense and to ignore him and that was my first reaction when I read his ludicrous answer. But his answer has attracted a million views. We need to know what makes a person utter such preposterous nonsense when he knows it will be read by so many people.
First, his objection is not the use of 'great' as an adverb. He seems to have a problem with 'doing'. As he puts it, the greeting 'How are you doing?' is an 'idiomatic, ungrammatical question'. You must understand that a grammar ignoramus does not know what grammar means. So, when he says something is ungrammatical, you have to dig a little deeper in order to comprehend his rather flawed line of reasoning. And I did that and this is what I discovered.
In reply to a Quora reader who objects to Frank's insistence that 'How are you doing?' and 'I'm doing great' are ungrammatical, Frank says this:
The verb 'doing' is transitive, and must have an object, which is missing in both cases.
And that is not all. In his response to another reader who disagreed that the greeting is ungrammatical, Frank writes this:
Like anyone who has a shaky grasp of the English language, Frank has a very limited understanding of semantics. While it is true that 'do' is a transitive verb, it is also an intransitive verb, just like many verbs that can function perfectly well as both. Every English-speaking person knows this and it's surprising Frank is ignorant of it.
Even a child must know that the word 'do' has many different meanings. One of the meanings is 'fare, get on, make progress, spec. as regards health' and it's intransitive. This is of course the meaning of 'doing' in 'I'm doing great'. And when someone says, 'How do you do?', he means 'How do you fare?' or 'How are you?' I cannot believe I have to explain this. Anyone who speaks even a smattering of English must know this. This meaning of 'do' is not a recent concoction. It has the support of antiquity. It's been around since the time when Middle English was used. Shakespeare used it when he made Shallow say in Henry IV Part 2:
How doth the good knight? May I ask how my lady his wife doth?
Frank's objection to the intransitive use of 'do' stems from his characteristic ignorance of the English language and a lack of attentiveness to the great works of our literary giants.
Although Frank does not object to the use of 'great' in the Quora question, such an objection is at least slightly more legitimate. We all know 'great' as an adjective but can 'great' be used as an adverb? As it turns out, 'great' did assume an adverbial role in the past. It first appeared as an adverb in Middle English as an intensifier but that usage soon became obsolete. It then appeared again as an adverb in the late 17th century and had a meaning that was synonymous with 'imposingly' but that didn't last long. In less than a hundred years, it passed out of use. For the next two centuries, 'great' could not be used as an adverb but it didn't completely give up the ghost. In the mid-20th century, 'great' again made a comeback as an adverb but this time it acquired the same meaning as the adverb 'well' and with this new meaning, 'great' continues to be used specifically in spoken English to this day.
Hence, the only legitimate objection that can be made is the use of 'great' in that Quora question. But as long as it is used informally, no pedant can possibly object to it. As far as I know, nobody in his right mind would say 'I'm doing great' in a context other than an informal conversation.
Please click here for other blog posts on language.
No comments:
Post a Comment