The Hum of Heresy

Monday, 18th Feb, 2019 by Krilling for Company in English usage, Guardianistas, In Terms Of, Linguistics and tagged Burroughs, core, edgy, English usage, free-thinkers, Guardian-readers, Guardianistas, hive mind, in terms of, issues around, K-Punk, key, Kurt Cobain, Mark Fisher, mavericks, non-conformists, Simon Reynolds, Stuart Self, The Guardian, toxic, trailing dots, Will Home, Will Self, William Burroughs, William S. Burroughs | Leave a comment

I don’t know any exceptions to the rule that someone who likes William Burroughs will also be a member in terms of core issues around the hive-mind. From Kurt Cobain to Will Self: if you get a buzz outa Burroughs, that won’t be the only buzzing you’re corely acquaintanced with… And I predict that you’ll frequently use, hear and read core items from the hive-mind term-set such as “in terms of”, “prior to”, “issues around”, “engagement with”, “spike”, “skill-set”, “core”, “key”, “toxic” and “edgy”… You’ll also like italics and trailing dots…

“There was a certain edgy excitement to turning on the computer every morning and immediately checking to see what Mark had thrown down in terms of an ideas-gauntlet.” – Simon Reynolds in the foreword to K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher (2004–2016), edited by Darren Ambrose, Repeater Books 2018.

Elsewhere other-engageable:

• Ex-term-in-ate!
• Don’t Do Dot…
• Prior Analytics
• Spike-U-Like?

Zo with the Flo

Monday, 24th Apr, 2017 by Krilling for Company in English usage, Guardianistas, In Terms Of and tagged bad English, core, engage with, engagement with, English prose, English usage, Google Ngram, Guardian, Guardianese, in terms of, issues around, ITO usage metrics, key, liberal English, linguistics, ngrams, notions of authenticity, statistics, The Guardian, Zoe Williams | Leave a comment

I had high hopes when I engaged issues recently around a Zoë Williams article in the Guardian interrogating issues around notions of rape in popular culture. And Zoë — what a thinker! — nearly fulfilled those hopes. I nearly had another scintillating sample for my award-winning “Oh My Guardian” series. This is nearly a perfect opening for a sentence of echt Guardianese:

In terms of narrative tropes…

But it should of course have been:

In terms of core narrative tropes…

So near — and yet so far. Still, “In terms of narrative tropes” is pretty darn good, worthy of the Great Gary himself. And it prompted me to interrogate issues around one of the core linguistic enigmas of our day. Here are two graphs from Google nGrams:

In terms of (UK English)

In terms of (US English)

What on earth is going on? Why have ITO usage metrics continued to rise in British English while peaking and falling in American English? This hasn’t happened with other core items of progressive English, like “issues around”:

Issues around (UK English)

Issues around (US English)

And “notions of authenticity”:

Notions of authenticity (UK English)

Notions of authenticity (US English)

And “engagement with” (in its progressive sense):

Engagement with (UK English)

Engagement with (US English)

If those keyly core items of Progressivese are “spiking” so healthily on both sides of the Atlantic, why is the even keylier corer “in terms of” not doing so? At least, I would say ITO is keylier corer, but does the ITO fall in America suggest that it isn’t?

Maybe not. One possibility is that “in terms of” has been depreciated in an influential (and anti-progressive) American manual of style that hasn’t been influential in the UK. However, American speakers have failed to see that the same grounds for rejection apply to “issues around” and so on.

But it’s hard to see why American progressives would take any notice of sensible advice about rejecting ITO. It’s also hard to see why the American drop in “in terms of” shouldn’t have influenced the UK even if this hypothetical style-manual (or arbiter) isn’t influential in the UK.

Something mysterious is going on and more research is plainly needed.

Post-Performative Post-Scriptum

• Termed Out Nice Again — the mystery is solved…

Previously pre-posted:

• Septics vs Dirties
• Get Your Tox Off
• Guardianistas — all posts referencizing this core progressive demographic and their glossocentric performativity

Are U Worthy?

Friday, 10th Mar, 2017 by Krilling for Company in Über-Transgression..., English usage, Guardianistas, In Terms Of, Keyly Committed Core Components of the Counter-Cultural Community, Transgression... and tagged 23 working days, Alan Moore, Are U Worthy?, counter-cultural, counter-cultural community, counter-culture, daily basis, dot dot dot, Genesis P-Orridge, Guardianese, Guardianistas, in terms of, issues around, J.G. Ballard, Jeremy Corbyn, Kathy Acker, Keyly Committed Core Components of the Counter-Cultural Community, Michael Moorcock, nagged by doubts, Norman Foreman B.A., phantasmagoric phrase, prior to, Stewart Home, The Guardian, transgression, transgressive, twenty-three, Vote Corbyn, Will Self, William Burroughs | Leave a comment

If you’re nagged by doubts as to whether you really are a keyly committed core component of the counter-cultural community, then simply engage issues around the following issues…

1. In terms of “in terms of”, how often do you hear this phantasmagoric phrase in terms of a daily basis?

2. Please hierarchialize the following core components of the counter-cultural icon community in terms of their “in-terms-of”-usage metrics: Will Self, J.G. Ballard, William Burroughs, Alan Moore, Miriam Stimbers, Michael Moorcock, Kathy Acker, Genesis P. Orridge, Alan Ginsberg, Stewart Home, Hubert Selby Jr., Norman Foreman (B.A.). (I.e., if you think Foreman uses “in terms of” most in terms of usage metrics, put him first; if you think Acker uses it second-most, put her second; etc.)

3. Engage issues around 1 and 2 again, replacing “in terms of” with “prior to”…

4. Engage issues around 1 and 2 again, replacing “in terms of” with “issues around”……

5. Engage issues around 1 and 2 again, replacing “in terms of” with “Vote Corbyn”………

Once you’ve engaged issues around the above issues, email your answers to Evaluator!@NakedKrunch and you should have your doubts laid to rest within 23 working days…

Previously pre-posted on Overlord of the Über-Feral…

• Les Sez
• Don’t Do Dot…
• Terminator!
• Metricizing Michael…
• Terminal Breach
• More Termination…

Fiat Flux

Friday, 16th Jan, 2015 by Krilling for Company in English usage, Guardianistas, In Terms Of, Politics and tagged adequate resourcing, adversely impacted, alternate ontology, bureaucratese, communities, consultation exercise, core non-negotiability, decision-making process, English language, English usage, ethnicity, gender-fluidity, Guardian, Guardian-reader, Guardian-readers, Guardian-reading community, Guardianista, Guardianistas, impact-assessment, in terms of, issues around, modern English, non-negotiable, on-going basis, overt illuminational hierarchy, prioritization, problematicization, ring-fenced contingencies, sexuality, vulnerable minority | 4 Comments

Q. How many Guardianistas does it take to change a light-bulb?

A. In terms of an initial / preliminary response around this obviously loaded question, I’d like to begin by problematicizing the notion that it is possible to erect an overt illuminational hierarchy whereby notions of “light” are privileged over notions of “darkness” through deployment of an “objective” and/or “value-free” modality of environmental interrogation via soi disant “sensory” channels. Next, it will (of course) be vital to undertake an in-depth consultation-exercise / impact-assessment with any and all vulnerable minority-communities of ethnicity, sexuality, gender-fluidity and/or other alternate ontology. We must ensure, on a keyly non-negotiable basis of absolute core non-negotiability, that their “fringe” inputs are prioritized on an on-going basis in terms of the decision-making process taking place around the problematicized notion of “changing” the allegedly “dead” so-called “bulb”. Issues around adequate resourcing of the consultation-exercise / impact-assessment must be addressed as a matter of urgency, with ring-fenced contingencies in place safeguarding provision of all necessary trauma counselling for vulnerable communities and/or individuals adversely impacted on a negative basis by the “bulb”-transitioning procedure and/or (indeed) the consultation-exercise / impact-assessment it/them/self/ves. Furthermore…

Septics vs Dirties

Friday, 5th Jul, 2013 by Krilling for Company in English usage, History, In Terms Of, Politics and tagged American English, British English, English language, English usage, Google Ngram Viewer, Guardian, in terms of, issues around, lexical patterns, lexical statistics, lexicographical, lexicography, ngram, ngrams, statistics | Leave a comment

Some interesting patterns at Google’s Ngram Viewer (please follow the links to see the original images with further statistics):

in terms of (American + British English)

in terms of (American English)

in terms of (British English)

issues around (American + British English)

issues around (American English)

issues around (British English)

Previously pre-posted (please peruse):

• Titus Graun
• Ex-term-in-ate!
• Reds under the Thread

Overlord In Terms of Core Issues Around Maximal Engagement with Key Notions of the Über-Feral

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