Gobbledegook

[nomoss]

 At what precise moment in time did people in Britain start using convoluted grammatical constructions?

Do they add anything of value to their speech, or does it perhaps sound more profound, to say "I have car which is very fast in terms of speed", or "My canary is yellow in colour"?

Does the habit stem from mimicking journalists and commentators who are maybe paid by the word?

[idun]

I have not heard anyone say these things, sounds like stuff from Drop the Dead Donkey.

I would like to say that in the recent past, I have heard a lot of tosh, coming from some officials mouths.[Www]

[NormanH]

I am less aware of redundant periphrasis than of American vocabulary that means little to me..

"Wellness"

"Mindfulness"

[nomoss]

[quote user="NormanH"]

I am less aware of redundant periphrasis than of American vocabulary that means little to me..

"Wellness"

"Mindfulness"

[/quote]

So that's what it's called [:D]

My examples are very common usage in BBC content I hear.

Are your two examples any worse than the current common use of the present continuous?

I am not liking it at all.

[woolybanana]

I think that is standard use in Indian English.

[mint]

"mindfulness" just puts my teeth on edge.

 

The present continuous instead of just plain present tense can be irritating, certainly, but Indian cricketers always seem to use it instead of the present!  In that instance, I don't mind it at all because, well, it is part of their accent.  I note it and I am amused but it doesn't offend my ears.

[NormanH]

The boy done good...

[mint]

[quote user="woolybanana"]I think that is standard use in Indian English.[/quote]

Sorry, Wools, we were about at the same time posting.  I lost a whole sentence and had to wait for the thing to allow me to continue.

Yes, Indian English, together with that moving of the head from left to right and raising the voice mid sentence.  Perfectly charming really, IMO.

[nomoss]

Maybe I'm ultra-sensitive to redundant periphrasis (thank you NH) than others, but I was just supplied with another example by Jeremy Vine, on Eggheads.

He referred to someone there as "more senior in age".

[idun]

I used to like watching Jeremy Vine, but I have little time for him now.

At one point I used to help at a language school. One fine day I got there and the owner came up to me and said that they had said something that perhaps they shouldn't have said, and that was 'I am knowing'. They asked me to say it was OK, and if I was irish, I may have agreed, but it just felt wrong.

At the end of my little class, I asked if there were any questions and one lady, whose english was pretty good said ' would you say, 'I am knowing'' To which I speedily replied and said, 'I wouldn't say that, any more questions?' She did not persue it.

Strange language school, they got me to record some stuff, that was simply not right, and could not understand why I said it wasn't.

Language is a strange thing. Apparently some 'americanisms' are old english. And yet some people from the british isles get riled, including my husband. And yet english is a wonderful 'b  as tard' language, always evolving.

[nomoss]

There was a young Spanish lady who worked for an agency we used in Mallorca and was their main English speaker.

She continually said "I was be" instead of "I was", which didn't bother me much at first, but eventually I just had to say something to her.

"But that was what we were taught in my English class" she said. "I was be, you were be, he was be, etc."

I don't know whether or not I convinced her.