Seniors: The grumpy grammarian

My introduction to the rules of English grammar took place in the first grade of St. Agnes Elementary School in Rockville Centre. Every Friday afternoon, Sister Marion would hold a private conference with each of her 60 students. One by one we would approach her desk and knock quietly on its surface. She would reply, “Who is it?” “It is I,” we would whisper back. Little did we realize then that “is” is a form of the copulative verb “to be” and requires the nominative case “I” in this three-word simple declarative sentence.

After six years of high school and college Latin and years of teaching English as a Second Language, I still consider myself an apprentice grammarian. I’m definitely not grumpy. That word just alliterates so well with grammarian.

Hence a new feature premieres in today’s “Island Seniors” in which you, dear reader, and I can share anecdotes about grammatical lapses.

Today’s lapses come from the radio, the board room and the Brennan family dinner table.

Let’s start with WNPR at 89.2 on  your FM dial. During a recent interview, the program moderator asserted that the work of musician X was “very unique.” The word “unique” implies one of a kind. “No unique thing is more or less unique that another thing,” states H. W. Fowler in his classic “Dictionary of Modern English Usage.” The music of X simply cannot be “very unique.”
At a meeting of one of Shelter Island’s many organizations, a member, perhaps to give greater emphasis to her statement, used the word “irregardless.” Once the negative idea is expressed by the “less” suffix, it is redundant to add the negative prefix “ir” to express the same idea.

Finally to the Brennan family dinner table in Stuyvesant Town some 50 years ago. Stuyvesant Town was a massive post WW II housing project in New York City. It ran from First Avenue to the East River and from 14th Street to 20th Street. Young Jim Brennan spent his formative years in its playgrounds with his pal Robbie.

During the infrequent lapses in his father’s dinner time monologues about his day’s doings, Jim would insert a bulletin about his own adventures. “Me and Robbie dropped some water balloons on the cops,” was one I remember. (The Stuyvesant Town police were ever vigilant in their attempt to protect property.) Another of Jim’s bombshells I remember was, “Me and Robbie tried to break into Tricia’s apartment. I got caught.”

Perhaps his father and I would have better served the cause of good family grammar if we had adopted a page from Sister Marion’s Friday afternoon script.

Jim (knocking on the dining table)

Dad: Who is it?

Jim: It is I, your son Jim.

Dad: What did you do today, son?

Jim: Robbie and I dropped water balloons on the cops.

Call me at 749-0751 if you have a “grammatical lapse” to share with the “Island Seniors” readership. — M.B.