President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama,
I am a concerned citizen interested to bring to your attention the public outrage about your frequent use of English in a non standard way. Kory Stamper points to your use of comparatives, where by you said, “madder” instead of “more mad.” Patricia O’Conner and Stewart Kellerman point to your use of pronouns, where by most people criticize you for using “I” instead of “me”. For instance, you said, “a very personal decision for Michelle and “I” and “the main disagreement with john and I.” Finally Michael Dowling point to your use of gerunds and participle. For instance, you said, “These goals can be achieved without us increasing troop levels” instead of “…without our increasing troop levels.” There are different reactions about the non-standard usage of language. Some people feel that the context in which you speak necessitates use of non standard words while some feel that it should not happen at all.
Other that what the authors above have reported, there are other grammatical mistake that the public has consistently pointed out. First is subject verb agreement. For instance, William Bigelow quoted you saying “Well, first of all, I do continue to believe that the greatest threat to United States security are the terrorist networks like al Qaeda …” instead of “Well, first of all, I do continue to believe that the greatest threat to United States security is the terrorist networks like al Qaeda …” Second is your mix-up of words or wrong vocabulary. An example reported by an American blogger is “They were fulfilling a central tenant of democracy envisioned by our founders” where you used “tenant” instead of “tenet.” Also Fan Oreilly noted your poor use of articles. For instance, your are reported saying “we are focused on a potential mission to a asteroid as a prelude to a manned mars flight.”
I agree with these critics that you do make grammatical mistakes. However, I do not agree with those who believe that the mistakes are an indication of you linguistic ability or intellect. Like I believe that you use of “madder” instead of “more mad” is for contextual purpose (register). I also believe that the use of I and me could be as confusing to anyone as it to you. For use of gerunds, I recommend Dowling’s advice that “gerunds ought to be preceded by possessive pronouns, not objective pronouns.
Sincerely
Citizen
