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If you listen to talk radio at all, especially NPR, you've heard these turns of phrase:
"in formed by" as in "Her decisions are informed by a life of public service"
and
"speak to that" as in "I haven't read the article so I can't speak to that"
Is anyone else annoyed by these? They both seemed to have crept into the
conversation within the last five years.
Hate'm.
I haven't heard those in actual human speech, but I definitely have on NPR. It seems to go hand in hand with strangely passive constructions, too.
It's possible I have ONLY heard these on NPR.
Apparently some people use it often enough that they want to translate it into other languages.
This makes me sad.Quote:
Originally posted by Zuul
Well, I can't speak to that, but my opinion of these phrases is largely informed by my regular exposure to NPR.
Seriously NPR I love you, but you talk funny.
They seem a little precious, I suppose, but I don't particularly mind them. They aren't quite pervasive enough to have become annoying cliches IMHO.
I actually use "informed by" in my regular speech. I'm clearly weird.
I hear "informed by" quite a bit over here and it is in fairly general use.
"Can't speak to that" should be taken away and disposed of somewhere.